Kannazuki no Shimai
by DezoPenguin
Summary: The Sisters of the Godless Month! Reincarnated as twins, Chikane and Himeko believe they know what to expect from the next cycle, but fate and destiny still have unexpected twists to threaten their happiness. A direct sequel to the KnM manga.
1. Prologue

**NOTE:** This is an out-and-out sequel to the manga version of _Kannazuki no Miko_, rather than the anime, which should be immediately obvious from the relationship of the resurrected priestesses. The differences aren't that drastic beyond that, but it does matter somewhat, particularly in the way in which the final confrontation between Himeko and Chikane took place, and also in a few details of their past lives, the technical requirements for summoning various deities, and so on...okay, and Chikane is more devious and evil than her anime counterpart, but Himeko's working on that. I suppose that deserves a warning that it does concern an incestuous relationship between twin sisters, though I doubt anyone would think it really counts given that their souls are centuries old and not originally sisters (plus that they remember at least one of their past lives, so it's not like they'll have to grapple with the whole question of who they are to one another), but hey, one person's ZOMG! is another person's squick.

As I did for my earlier DoA fic, "Serpent's Egg," I'd like to openly admit that I face a problem in the naming of my characters. While my knowledge of Japanese is better than my knowledge of Chinese, in that I actually have some, I have virtually no knowledge of Japanese history and culture. Thus while I'm fairly certain that I'm attaching female names to female characters, male names to male characters, and using family names as family names, I face the risk that these names will accidentally turn into bad jokes (i.e. if the kanji for them might be read as something like "gatherer of goat dung") or may accidentally end up being the same as noble statesmen, idol singers, financial leaders, politicians ousted from office after scandal, or the current right fielder for the Chunichi Dragons. I hope that in the event any such embarrassing mistakes are made, that they will at least bring amusement to those who possess knowledge where I have only ignorance.

Along the same lines, I know for a fact that if I tried to have the characters address each other with Japanese honorifics, that I _would_ make mistakes, since I simply lack the knowledge of Japanese culture that would allow me to pick a proper honorific given character and relationship. Therefore, I have not attempted to use them, even though it means missing out on obvious and appropriate usages such as Himeko's trademark "Chikane-chan" (Which I admit I'm going to miss. Badly.). Likewise, since I'm writing this story in English the characters will address each other in the form natural to English speakers (i.e. first names among students rather than last names). I have left "Miya-sama" intact as the single exception, simply because there's no real English-language equivalent for the concept being used.

Enough from me. Enjoy the story!

_--_

_In the beginning, humanity lived in innocence, in accordance with the will of the gods. The world was peaceful and idyllic. But in the hearts of the people lurked a darkness. Desire for things they could not have. Jealousy of others who seemed wealthier and happier. Malice and hatred for what they believed stood in their way. Arrogance to think that what was not theirs should be. The darkness seethed within them until it took root within the very fabric of the world._

_And _Yamata no Orochi_ was born._

- - - - - - - - - -

**Seven.**

"Major Junichi Ozawa, mastermind of the so-called Slaughter of Sendai, is just now leaving the courtroom," the webvid reporter announced into the camera. "Let's see if we can get any comment on the verdict. Major Ozawa!" she cried. "Major Ozawa! A moment please!"

She was lost in the sea of other reporters in the next instant, merely one in a faceless, formless shape of flashing lights and screamed questions that were as much invective as they were requests for information.

"Do you think the guilty verdict was fair?"

"Major Ozawa, what does it feel like to be found responsible for the death of one hundred thirty-four civilians?"

"Is this what militarism means to modern Japan, Major Ozawa? Children dead in the streets?"

"Do you think a prison term will wash away the blood on your hands?"

Between the JSDF military policemen, Ozawa stood ramrod-straight. Clad in his dress uniform from the trial, his stern, severe face seemingly chiseled from slabs of granite, he presented a stern, unbending manner. One could easily believe that this was the man whose unit had launched an artillery strike against a school, concluding an antiterrorist operation gone horribly wrong with the blood of teachers, administrators, and children.

_"We haven't confirmed their claims yet, Control."_

_"Team Alpha, your orders are clear and unequivocal. We cannot allow them to release the sarin gas. The terrorists are currently all located within the gymnasium. They can be eliminated."_

_"But the hostages! Control, we need more time to determine if the threat is real!"_

_"We do not have that luxury, Major Ozawa. Execute your orders or you will be relieved."_

So he'd done what he was ordered. He gave the go-ahead to his team to strike. And when it had been found that the eleven extremists had nothing deadlier than semiautomatic weapons, the questions and doubts had turned to outrage. A feeding frenzy from the media, from society.

_Where were those who made the decision?_ Ozawa thought bitterly as he was led away. The intelligence analysts, the command group, the bureaucrats? Nameless and faceless forever, while Major Junichi Ozawa's face was all too conveniently clear in the public mind. He bore his share of guilt, but it was nothing compared to the rage he felt towards those who piously smiled while cleaning their bloody hands in _his_ blood. A rage that burned all the more fiercely as he had no name to direct it against.

- - - - - - - - - -

Yamata no Orochi_ screamed its malice from eight throats, and breathed a wind of destruction from eight mouths. The seas rose, the mountains belched fire, and the earth cracked before the darkness-made-will. The innocent suffered. The guilty died. The works of mankind were shattered without mercy, and all that was good and all that was ill perished equally in the fires of hate. The dying screamed to their gods for protection, but their pleas fell upon deaf ears. This was the Godless Month, in which the world was forced to suffer on its own._

Kannazuki.

- - - - - - - - - -

**Six.**

_Today._

He had thought it through. Made up his mind. The urge was so strong he could not bear it any longer. The lines of fire tingling beneath his fingers, the silvery, metallic taste on his tongue, the electric pressure surging at the base of his groin.

_Today._

He'd watched and waited for days, days that stretched into weeks, savoring the delicious agony of suspense and doubt. She belonged to _him_ now. _Only_ to him. He'd staked his claim to her, watched over her, all in anticipation of this moment.

He opened the door of the nondescript white sedan and slipped out. The heels of his shiny black shoes clicked off the pavement of the parking garage. He savored the memory of how the ghosts of those echoes would reach her, how she'd stop and look around on a quiet street, only to see nothing as he'd fade into the shadows just beyond sight.

He knew her schedule in minute detail. She would emerge from the door across the way between six-twenty-four and six-twenty-eight, and she'd be his. He wondered what she'd be wearing, how the texture would feel as it parted beneath his hands.

The wire was around his neck without hint or warning. He had no idea what had happened, the pressure clamping down and the terrific blow in the small of his back were beyond his experience. There was no time to prepare, no time to react, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. His absolute control of the situation was gone, mastery solely in the hands of another, throttling, choking until his senses swam and the blood ran from where the wire had bitten into the flesh of his neck. He'd been dead for more than three minutes when the pressure was finally relaxed.

_Kazuo?_

No, not him, Akemi Kuroda admitted to herself. Not her so-called "boyfriend" from junior high school. But he had been stalking the woman in 11C for several weeks now. Just as, Akemi was sure, he'd stalked and raped Mari Ishida seven months ago.

The switchblade glinted in the dim emergency lighting.

No, he wasn't Kazuo. But for a while, at least, she could pretend.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Without the protection of the divine, the world seemed lost before the fury of _Yamata no Orochi. _Then two pure shrine maidens, priestesses of the sun and moon, shed of their own blood in a cry to the God of Swords, _Ame no Murakumo_. Unable to resist their pleas, _Ame no Murakumo_ cleft the dark skies of _Kannazuki _like a spear of light, and at the guidance of the miko rose to do battle with _Yamata no Orochi_._

_- - - - - - - - - -_

**Five.**

He wielded the brush deftly, in gentle strokes measured precisely, almost mathematically.

"Hirata."

Everything had to be done just so. It wasn't enough to capture the mood or the feeling, the attitude that had to be expressed by the piece. No, an absolute precision was demanded by the work.

"Hirata!"

That was the essence of it, just as in handwriting one followed a certain stroke order or a character looked wrong, so too in this did each sweep of the brush have to be done in an exact order, an exact fashion or there would be flaws.

"Hey, Hirata!"

A heavy hand fell on his right shoulder, and it was all that Keiichi Hirata could do to keep from smearing the brush across the canvas and ruining a month's work.

"Damn it, Tanaka!" he exploded. "Do you think I can just pick up an eraser if something goes wrong? What's wrong with you?"

Tanaka flinched. A big man with the black leather jacket and spiky hair of a punk, he still deferred to the temperamental artist who'd been his best friend since kindergarten.

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you, I got that stuff you wanted." He held up a paper bag and Hirata snatched at it eagerly.

"Finally!" He took out the tubes, glancing at them. "Yes, the right color, exactly what I need to--" He stopped as he caught sight of the back of one tube, of its list of chemical ingredients. He ground his teeth in frustration. "You..._idiot!_"

"What is it? I got what you wanted, didn't I?"

"You got the right _color_, yes. But tell me, Tanaka, how is it that anyone will believe this is Van Gogh's _Starry Night_ if the most basic chemical test reveals paint that wasn't in use until the latter half of the twentieth century?"

He hurled the bag across the room, where it crashed into a pair of leftover dinner glasses and shattered them.

"Isn't it bad enough I'm stuck grinding out those forgeries so that your _yakuza_ friends have something to bribe those idiot politicians with? Forced to stifle my art, every bit of my own self for the sake of making an adequate product that won't get us knifed and dumped in a harbor? Can't you at least try to follow the most basic directions?"

"Ease up, Hirata, I'm not some damn chemistry major, am I? And at least my friends are willing to pay you for these." He waved at the half-complete canvas. "Before I came along, you were gonna get kicked out onto the street. You've got a roof over your head now, food on the table, so maybe you'd better try remembering that this is a pretty sweet deal for both of us. So tell me what you need, and this time give me _all_ the details, 'kay?"

Hirata exhaled, long and slow, swallowing the anger.

"Yeah. Yeah, all right." And he began to tell Tanaka the precise requirements he needed to reproduce someone else's creativity, someone else's dreams, while he continued to choke off his own, unwanted hopes.

_- - - - - - - - - -_

_When the titanic clash was over, _Yamata no Orochi _lay still and broken. _Ame no Murakumo _hurled it from the earth and buried it within the moon, then set a shrine above it to seal its malice. Yet the darkness had lain waste to the world and such devastation had been wreaked that the end was nigh. And thus did the Priestess of the Sun offer her life for the rebirth for the world, and the Priestess of the Moon did sorrowfully shed her blood, and from this sacrifice was time rewritten and the horror of the Godless Month undone._

- - - - - - - - - -

**Four.**

The elegant evening gown clung to Saori Takamine's body like a second skin, glossy scarlet silk framing an exquisite form ruthlessly maintained through diet and exercise. Jet-black hair cut to a razor-edge line at shoulder length contrasted with milky-white skin and was set off by diamonds at ears and throat.

_This is it_, she thought. Kenji had said he had something important to discuss with her tonight. They were dining in his suite rather than at the restaurant, which meant that he had something else planned for afterwards. Her lips curved in an amused smile as the elevator ascended. How like a man to be thinking of the bedroom at such a time.

A soft chime signaled the arrival of the elevator at the penthouse level. The doors slid open, and Kenji Kojima extended a hand to welcome her. The president of Himemiya Macrotechnology was fifty-three, with iron-gray hair and a neatly trimmed moustache. He'd grown a bit thicker of build, a little fleshier during the years of their relationship, but he was still a handsome man. Besides which, Kenji's appearance was by no means Saori's principal interest in him.

"You look lovely tonight, Saori."

"Thank you. As you said it was to be a special occasion, I took extra care. I hope that I have not embarrassed myself."

"Not at all. Come, let us eat."

She almost spoke up, but long years of practice allowed her to restrain herself, to wait. Kenji led her to the table, which was laid out Western-style with crisp white linens and glittering silver, lit by two long white taper candles. The cuisine was French and, as to be expected from the five-star hotel's kitchen, excellent. Saori ate very little, though; the excitement and anticipation had unsettled her stomach.

The end finally came, however, when all was cleared away and it was just the two of them.

"Saori..." he began.

"Yes, Kenji?"

"I scarcely know where to begin," he said. "For so many years now, our relationship has been a fixture in my life." He reached into his pocket and took out a jewelry box, the name on the package one of Tokyo's most prestigious firms. Yet the box was long and thin, suitable for a necklace or bracelet. _What was happening?_

"It causes me much regret, therefore, that this will be the last time I am able to see you, and I hope you will accept this token of my regard."

He extended the box to Saori, but she made no move to take it. Instead, she could only stare at him, dumbstruck.

"Saori, this is as hard for me as it is for you, but surely we can discuss it like mature adults. You're certainly not a child anymore."

"This...this was the 'something special' you had to say to me tonight?" she forced out the words. "That you were tossing me aside?"

"I've already given instructions to continue the payment on your apartment through the end of next month," he continued without apparent emotion, "but after that you'll have to make your own arrangements."

"I...I thought...you meant to ask me to marry you!"

Now he did show emotion: surprise, followed immediately by disbelief.

"_Marry_ you? Saori, you're a woman of the world. Surely you didn't think I was some lovestruck fool who would marry his mistress like...the hero of some American romance movie? You gave me your time, your company, and pleasure, and I gave you money. That was the essence of our relationship."

"It's been ten years!"

"It has, and if I may be blunt, things have reached the point where the advantages of familiarity have become outweighed by the benefits of youth and attractiveness."

"You _bastard!_" She hurled the dregs of her wine into his face. While he sputtered, she snatched the jewelry box away from him and stalked towards the door, a white heat beginning to build in the pit of her stomach.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Yet the hearts of humanity were still tainted in this new world, and in time they would call again to _Yamata no Orochi, _and the darkness would again sunder the seal to bring destruction. For this day, the soul of the Solar Priestess was condemned to remain within the shrine that she may again be sent forth and reborn when Orochi stirred. And the soul of the Lunar Priestess was returned to the world to endure in solitude until that day._

- - - - - - - - - -

**Three.**

Yuujiro Abe was grateful that he commuted by train. He'd turned in yet another week of twelve-hour days at the office. His whole section had, since the company's future depended upon their work. A handful of new processes together with internally maintained business efficiencies had led close observers to recognize the future value of the company was much greater than its present stock price on the Nikkei exchange suggested. They were ripe for takeover, and Mitsubishi had struck. Desperate to keep the company he'd poured his life's blood into from being snapped up and devoured, CEO Nishida had sought a white knight.

He'd been lucky enough to find one that had been willing to leave the company mostly intact, if taking a substantial share in future profits, and Abe's section had been working day and night to hammer out the final terms to make them a vassal of the Himemiya Financial Group. The last three days Abe hadn't even gone home, just crashed at a coffin hotel and dragged himself back to his desk before dawn. But they'd succeeded; the deal was done and the papers signed before the deadline for presenting the Mitsubishi offer to shareholders.

Of course, such an event had to be celebrated; the entire section had been invited out with the corporate heads. Although by that time Abe had wanted nothing more than to crawl into his own bed, he'd been obliged to attend and to put alcohol on top of exhaustion. Yes, he was very glad that for the hour-and-a-half commute he was not required to drive but could simply drop into a seat and wait. It would feel so good to be home, to peel away the public face of the working salaryman and be alone with his wife Aoi.

The walk home from the suburban station was slow and halting; the cool night air did little to revive him. He fumbled with his key in the lock, making too much noise as he removed his shoes. Suddenly the foyer's inner door was flung open.

"You!" a woman's voice shrieked.

In the next instant a hand cracked hard against his face.

"How dare you show yourself here?"

It wasn't Aoi, his bleary mind recognized. It was...Amane, Aoi's sister. But why was she so angry?

"What is it? Where's Aoi?"

"She's _dead_! Not that you care, you _bastard_!" Tears streaming down her face, she pounded at his chest with tiny fists.

Abe couldn't think, couldn't act. Aoi...dead? It couldn't be! It didn't make sense! What was she _saying_?

"A-Amane," he stammered out. "What happened?"

"It was appendicitis. She went to the hospital two days ago, but she'd put off getting medical help too long," Amane sobbed. "They--they couldn't do anything to save her."

"But why didn't anyone _tell_ me?"

"Why didn't--?" Amane gasped, then her face twisted with rage. "We tried and tried! I called. The _doctors_ called. And do you know what we were told? 'Mr. Abe is occupied with important corporate business and cannot be disturbed for merely personal matters.'"

Abe's hands went slack, his jaw dropping, not even noticing when his sister-in-law began to scream at him again. He'd worked, he'd given hours of his life, his sweat and tears to the company, and what did it mean? Nothing at all. He was nothing but a source of food for this insatiable vampire that would take and take until he had nothing left to offer, then dispose of him, clearing space for fresh meat for it to consume.

Hot tears spilled down his face as a bitter hate rose up to consume him.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Thus did the ages pass, and the cycles repeat, of _Kannazuki_ and the horror of _Yamata no Orochi_, the sealing, and the sacrifice of rebirth. And so did the separation tear at the hearts of the shrine maidens, and their souls cried out to one another for their ever-so-brief time together before their cruel parting._

_Until at last, consumed by guilt and loss, the soul of the Lunar Priestess fell to darkness._

- - - - - - - - - -

**Two.**

Kei Tsujimura was in his element: the hard, driving rock beat through the speakers, the flashing, twisting lights, the bodies in constant motion on and off the dance floor.

"Now, this is my kinda place!" he muttered as he scoped out a girl with tanned skin and dyed-blonde hair dressed in something red and slinky. But the scenery, good as it was, wasn't why he was here. Maybe later he could try his luck. Right now, though, was for business. The nineteen-year-old might not have some fancy education, but street life had taught Kei that business was business.

"Aha, there he is."

There were four of them at a back table, men in dark suits. The heat of the club didn't seem to touch any of them. Kei worked his way through the press and over to them. They looked up at his approach. One of the men, the broadest of the four, rose from his seat to block Kei's progress.

"Mr. Mori," Kei said, giving a nod by way of a bow. "It's good to see you again."

"Eh? What is this?" hissed another man, not Mori but one Kei didn't know.

"An unwelcome interruption."

"Hey, now, no need to be that way. I just happened to be in the neighborhood and wanted to know when you'd be needing me again."

"When I would be...?"

"Yeah, see, I've been pulling a lot of jobs for you, and it seems to me that it's about time you kicked me up to full _kobun_ in the Taki-gumi." There, he'd said it. And damn it, it was right. He wasn't going to be some petty street tough forever!

Mori flicked his eyes at the standing man. In the next instant Kei was bent over, gasping and choking from the blow to his solar plexus. God, he'd barely seen the man move!

"Go away, and we will forget this ever happened," Mori said flatly.

It was actually a fairly generous offer for the yakuza under-_oyabun_ to make, but Kei's blood was up, less from the punch than from the snub.

"Hey, now, there's no call for that! I've been working hard for you, gave you my loyalty and I'd say it's time to get some of it back!"

The big man hit him again.

"Loyalty?" Mori hissed. "You speak to me of loyalty? You are garbage, the trash picked off the street and offered money to do work. The Taki-gumi is a family, and one does not invite punk garbage into one's home to become part of one's family. Daizo, remove him."

"Yes, sir. Do you want me to--?"

"The stench might foul your knife. It is not worth the risk."

Daizo nodded. With a firm hand he steered Kei out the back way into the alley behind the club. Kei hit the far wall hard, came back swinging, but the yakuza soldier sidestepped the punch and chopped the back of his neck. The blows came rapidly, then, first from his hands, then kicks once Kei could no longer stand.

Daizo left him there, curled up and bleeding from a split lip and where a kick had opened up a cut under one eye. But Kei was still conscious, and he saw how the yakuza fastidiously wiped his shoes before reentering the club.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Unable to bear the pain of condemning her heart's twin to oblivion and solitude, unable to bear the cruelty of eternal meetings and partings, the Priestess of the Moon sought to kindle hatred within the Priestess of the Sun, in the hope that the Solar Priestess might strike her down and in so doing choose to remake the world without her, without the endless cycle, and be free to find happiness without the burden of her tainted half._

- - - - - - - - - -

**One.**

"Miya-sama!"

"Miya-sama!"

"I beg your pardon, Miya-sama!"

They called out like a gathered crowd cheering the praises of a royal processional. It wasn't such a large crowd or so densely packed here at Kamiyatate University as it had been in junior high and high school, but a change of campus had not changed the status of Mahoroba's reigning princess. She was as much admired and respected--and desired--as she had been at Ototachibana Academy.

Reiko Himemiya was the daughter of the wealthiest family in the district. The Himemiya clan had founded the town over a thousand years ago. Though they had risen to prominence in international business circles, the family's home estate had always been in this quiet town in western Japan, and had been largely responsible for preserving its heritage and slow way of life in defiance of the frenetic pace of modern technological advancement. They had spared no expense in their daughter's education: tutors and governesses had trained her in the skills of a lady even as she had attended Ototachibana so as to be surrounded by the people her family relied upon and owed an almost feudal duty to, according to Reiko's father. It was only right and natural that Reiko should be looked up to by her classmates.

Except that she wasn't. Reiko was only "Miya-sama" to the servants at home. At school, as always, she was merely one of the crowd that watched eagerly for a glimpse of their idol.

Reiko could hardly begrudge the girl her position. Tsukuyo Asamiya was everything Reiko wasn't: where the Himemiya heiress was short and a little dumpy with a blotchy complexion, Tsukuyo was tall, curvaceous, and beautiful, with a sweep of knee-length blue-black hair that never showed a strand out of place. Where Reiko got nervous and stammered in front of crowds and strangers, Tsukuyo was always calm and poised, even queenly. Where Reiko had to fight to remember the proper manners for formal, traditional affairs, they came to Tsukuyo with an apparently effortless grace. Beyond that she was an honor student, star of a tennis team that had made it nearly to the national finals, captain of the archery club, and a talented amateur pianist.

The plain truth was that if one met Reiko and Tsukuyo together, without prior knowledge no one would ever correctly identify which was one of Japan's greatest heiresses and which was the daughter of a site foreman for a Himemiya-owned construction company.

Reiko didn't resent any of it. She wouldn't have been comfortable being a princess, anyway. The thing that gnawed at her heart was something entirely different.

Part of Miya-sama's regal air was the poise with which she treated her fans. A calm voice, a gentle smile, a gracious acknowledgment of their feelings. Confessions of love were inevitably turned aside, but never sharply, always with respect for the courage needed to take that step. She competed skillfully and diligently, even relentlessly, but without anger at sports; she performed unobtrusive acts of kindness. All of it done with a control and dignity suitable for the role she played.

With one person, though, it was different. Then, Tsukuyo would smile brightly with real joy, laugh heartily or giggle playfully, become caught up in worry or genuinely angry. Towards that person or in her presence, Tsukuyo wasn't Miya-sama, but just an ordinary girl.

Reiko wished with all of her heart that she was that one person, that Tsukuyo would look on her with the radiance she seemed to save for her twin sister. But for fourteen years, kindergarten through the start of their freshman year of college, there had been no sign of it, no hint, no _hope_ that the Himemiya heiress was anything to Tsukuyo than just another face in the crowd.

- - - - - - - - - -

_Yet the spirit of the Solar Priestess would not succumb, and her love was not so frail a thing as to break beneath the torments placed upon her. In the end she found the strength to deny her beloved's fear and guilt, to defy _Ame no Murakumo_ and fate and destiny, and she chose to abandon her own life, to seal herself away together with the Lunar Priestess so that they might make of the time imprisoned not a cruel separation but a lover's idyll, and so that they might, when called to the world again, to be together throughout their reborn lives._

_Only, fate is not a thing so easily broken._


	2. Idyll Before the Storm

"Himeko."

The voice sounded hollow and distant, an echo from a faraway place.

"Himeko."

It was affectionate and yet stern, calling up memories both pleasant and sorrowful, images that penetrated the warm darkness that enveloped her.

"Hi. Me. Ko!"

Himeko's eyes snapped open, the last shards of sleep falling away before the increasingly insistent summons. She looked around for the source of the voice and saw Chikane leaning against her deck. As always, she felt that tiny spark in her heart, that brightness that Chikane was the first thing she saw in the morning, just as it had for the nearly nineteen years of her life--_this_ life, at least.

The sign outside their Kamiyatate University dorm room read Hikari Asamiya and Tsukuyo Asamiya. Those were their names as far as the world was concerned--birth certificates, family registers, school records, passports, all said that. Their parents certainly would have said so, particularly their mother, since giving birth to twins wasn't the kind of experience one easily forgets. So yes, they were Hikari and Tsukuyo. It was just hard to remember that sometimes, Himeko thought, when she carried the memories of their past lives together as Himeko Kurusugawa and Chikane Himemiya, Solar and Lunar Priestesses, the shrine maidens--_miko_--of Ame no Murakumo. There was no reason to doubt these memories; Chikane had them too. As they'd grown older together, their developing minds had been able to understand more and more of that past. And without those memories of being star-crossed lovers, Himeko would probably have felt more than a little guilty about the very unsisterly things she and her twin did together.

As it was, she just felt happy to be able to share her feelings with her beloved. In their previous lives, Chikane had gone to great lengths, even absurd ones, to make Himeko hate her and end their eternal cycle, all because she was consumed with guilt. Some of that guilt had been for what they were forced to do as miko, the ritual of sacrifice and the separation forced on them between cycles, but also because she felt the bond between priestesses was "tainted" by her lesbian desires for Himeko. Well, Himeko certainly didn't feel tainted. Blessed, maybe, that someone she loved as much as Chikane felt the same way about her, but certainly not dirty or wrong.

Thinking of the night before, she decided that at least she seemed to be bringing Chikane around rather firmly to her side of things. Honestly, she'd never known her twin to be so...

_...wait a minute..._

"Chikane, it's Sunday. We didn't have to get up early today. Why are you waking me up?"

"Aren't you meeting Marika at ten this morning? It's nine-thirty already."

"Wha--? Chikane, why did you let me sleep so late!?" Himeko flung off the covers and all but flew towards her dresser. An early riser, Chikane was already polished and perfect, washed and made up with her blue-black hair in a waterfall down to her knees, held off her face with a simple headband, her shapely body (_don't go there--I'm late!_) clad in an elegant white one-piece dress. In the past, she'd thought of Chikane as a kind of goddess descended, to look so beautiful and composed with such ease. Shared affection and familiarity had turned that into a good-natured envy.

Chikane smiled.

"You just look so cute when you're sleeping, Himeko. I couldn't bring myself to disturb you."

Himeko blushed. Compliments tended to do that to her.

"Just like that." Chikane wrapped her arms around her from behind. "Sometimes you just make me want to hug you."

"I'm...just glad I can make you smile, Chikane," Himeko sighed, felling the other girl's warmth against her. Chikane kissed the top of her head.

"Here, let me do that."

She plucked the hairbrush from Himeko's hand and with deft strokes began to restore Himeko's waist-length gold hair to order. When the knots caused by sleeping with it loose were gone, she set down the brush and tied in Himeko's signature red ribbon, knotting it into a girlish bow.

"There you go."

"Thank you, Chikane." She dressed in a pink button-down blouse so she didn't have to disturb her hair with a pullover, then added a pleated blue skirt, socks, and comfortable walking shoes.

"There! Bye, Chikane!"

"One more thing."

"Eh?"

Chikane took her by the shoulders, then bent so their foreheads touched.

"I'm a little jealous of you, spending the day with Marika."

"I can't invite you along; we're shopping for your birthday present!"

"I know, but I just want to remind you whom to come home to." She leaned in and kissed Himeko hard on the lips, long and lovingly.

"I don't actually _have_ to go shopping today," Himeko said, and they both broke into giggles.

"I'd consider it, but if you're too late, Marika will come looking for you, and I think once was enough for that experience."

Himeko blushed furiously, recalling the moment when Marika and her aunt had become privy to her and Chikane's true relationship.

"Yes. Right. Going now." She made a break for the door, then stopped with her hand on the knob. "I love you, Chikane."

"I love you, too."

Himeko dashed out the door and down two flights of stairs, regretting her lack of punctuality with every step, particularly when she slipped going around a landing and would have fallen had she not caught herself on the railing, slightly twisting her ankle. She kept going, though, went outside and descended the long staircase that connected Mahoroba's elite academies with the rest of the town. Marika was waiting by the massive English oak at the base, tapping her foot and glancing at her watch.

Marika Ohgami did not make many people think, "Ah, this girl is surely descended from a centuries-old line of Shinto priests." She was an outgoing, vivacious bundle of energy an inch under five feet tall who spoke her mind plainly and whose hair hadn't been the same color two weeks running since junior high. Today she was sporting multiple jewel tones, amethyst on the left and sapphire on the right, blended in a French braid. She reminded Himeko a lot of Makoto Saotome, her best friend from her past life, which she supposed only stood to reason.

"Hi, Marika!"

"Hikari..." she started warningly, then deftly headlocked the blonde girl. "You are _late_."

"Ack!"

"Probably performing all sorts of unspeakable acts. Ah! How sweet must the fruit of forbidden love taste," she added theatrically, pressing the back of her hand to her forehead. "Meanwhile, your boyfriendless friend is left cooling her heels. Just for that, you're buying me breakfast."

"Um...okay?"

Marika let her go.

"That was surprisingly easy. Wait, don't tell me you--"

"No! I just overslept!" Himeko held up her hands desperately. "You know me; I'm probably the younger twin because I slept in for my own birth." When Marika snorted with laughter she added, "Er, I like your hair."

"I hope so--it's birthday hair for the two of you. Purple like your eyes, blue like Tsukuyo's, and braided 'cause, well, you know."

"Aww, that's so _sweet_, Marika."

"Enough talk. We have shopping to do, and I want an Egg McMuffin."

"Why?"

"It's a character flaw, but what can I do?"

They took the bus from the base of the academy hill into the town proper. Mahoroba wasn't really a big town; despite its bustling population it still had the air of a country village. Trees grew thickly between the urbanized areas and dotted the streets, while construction tended towards the quaintly traditional rather than pre-fab concrete blocks. While Himeko had no intention of leaving--inevitably, the summoning of Ame no Murakumo had to take place at Ohgami Shrine where Marika's father was the priest--the truth was that the world beyond held little appeal. Oh, a vacation was one thing, but Himeko would have been perfectly happy living out her life in Mahoroba.

_Not that I'll get the chance to have that kind of life,_ she thought. It made her a little sad, thinking that when she was gone, Mama and Papa and Marika and the Ohgamis wouldn't even remember her, except as a character out of an old legend.

"Hikari, are you all right? You looked kind of wistful."

"I'm fine. I just thought of something sad, that's all."

_Is that why Chikane never gets too close to anyone but me?_ Himeko wondered. _Because she knows it'll all go away?_ It sounded like something Chikane would do. She took the bad things much harder than Himeko did.

"Well, don't; you can't pick out something to make Tsukuyo happy if you're crying. By the way, what are you thinking of getting her, anyway?"

"I don't know; that's why I wanted you to come with me. She's really hard to buy for."

"I know what you mean. She always seems like she has everything, y'know, even when she doesn't. And she'd cut off her leg before she ever asked anyone for something, even you."

"She doesn't want to be a burden on anyone."

Marika gave her a look.

"_Miya-sama_ doesn't want to be a _burden_," she drawled.

"It's true! That's just how Chikane is. She wants to be the strong one to support the people and things she cares about, and not make us worry about her. It's really hard getting her to share her problems with me...and, I'm not always good at noticing on my own when something's wrong."

"Okay, you know, I can actually see that. And you don't know of anything she needs?"

"Well, she needed a new tennis racket, but Mama and Papa got her one already. They gave it to her early so she'd have it for the match two weeks ago."

"Wow, that's a pretty expensive gift."

"Chikane was worried that they might have trouble paying for it, but she didn't want to be ungracious, either. It bugged her for about a week."

"Did they give you yours early, too?"

"Mm-hm! They got me a new camera!"

"A nice one?"

"Uh-huh! I'd give you the details, but you'd just yawn. It's nearly professional class, though!"

"I like how your parents are always careful to balance things between you."

Himeko nodded.

"Even though we're so different."

The McDonald's was conveniently near the shopping district bus stop so Himeko was able to buy Marika her Egg McMuffin. Her stomach chose that moment to remind her and everyone else around her that she'd skipped breakfast, so she caved in and bought hotcakes for herself.

"I've been thinking," Marika declared after the meal. "You should get her something all lovey-dovey. If you don't want to fill a need, then what you want is something sentimental and full of feeling. Remind her of how much you love her. That's always a good idea."

"How did you get so good at this, Marika?"

"Practice! You've only had one romance your entire life. How can you expect to learn the subtleties of human interaction from a single example? Or so I tell myself." She groaned and dropped her head on the table. "If you're really the Solar Priestess, could you put in a good word with Ame no Murakumo to send me a cute guy?"

"Um...I'm not sure the God of Swords is all that good at love..."

"Oh, yeah, right. Says the girl who's deliriously happy in her"--Marika reflexively dropped her voice though no one was nearby--"incestuous, lesbian relationship. Seriously, you'd think there'd be at least a _little_ angst over an arrangement like that, but no."

"We did sort of go overboard on that last time."

"Past life angst does not count. Come on; let's go."

They spent the next four hours happily going in and out of nearly every shop in the district, during which the shopaholic Marika ended up with four full bags and Himeko had managed to find an ornate silver clamshell into which she'd had their names engraved. Since it was Chikane who'd told her the story about such shells, that each was an exactly matched pair that no other in the world would fit with, the simile was special to her, and this particular necklace had both shells instead of just one, so she could put in both names.

That ended up confusing the jeweler, though, because he knew the twins by reputation since his son had been in their high-school class.

"Excuse me, but...isn't your sister's name Tsukuyo?"

"Well, yes it is, but..."

"You two really ought to stop this 'twin name' thing," Marika bailed her out. "You see how it confuses people." She turned to the jeweler. "Would you believe they've been calling each other by different names since they could talk? It seriously worried their mother until their pediatrician started telling her about twin psychology and that that sort of thing was normal."

"Geez, Marika," Himeko said, blushing yet again, but she was glad for her friend's quick explanation.

"All right, then, Himeko and Chikane it is."

They left the store and headed back down towards the bus stop, Himeko all but skipping along in happiness. They'd nearly gotten there when they all but ran into her sister..

"Chikane!"

"Hey, Tsukuyo. Good to see you."

"Hello, Himeko, Marika."

Marika peered closely at Chikane.

"Okay, what gives? You're not the type to try to snoop at your gift early, and there's no way you left your own shopping 'til the day before like Hikari did, so what are you doing here?"

"Marika, it's a public street..." Himeko said lamely.

"Aha! You _miss_ her, don't you? I'm right, aren't I? Sunday is the only day of the week you're not tied up with classes and homework and sports practices and Heaven knows what else, and you wanted to spend it with your sister!"

Chikane looked a little taken aback at Marika's directness; she sometimes didn't know quite how to take the girl. Himeko thought it was because Marika didn't pay much attention to personal boundaries, while Chikane typically held everyone at arm's length with her queenly air. Ordinarily she'd have dealt with Marika's intrusive ways with a crushing set-down, but she wouldn't want to indirectly hurt Himeko by slapping at her friend.

"So," Marika continued without waiting for an answer, "this is one third wheel who knows when to roll away. Here, Hikari, let me take that so you don't have to lug it around in front of Tsukuyo all day. You can pick it up when you visit the shrine this evening."

Himeko handed her the bag containing Chikane's present.

"How did you know we'd be coming by?"

"Hikari, you two have visited the shrine since the night before your birthday every year since the day before you turned thirteen. It's like it's destiny or something. Bye-bye!"

Chikane watched Marika scamper off and shook her head.

"You have...interesting friends, Himeko. But I shouldn't say such things, since you chose me, too."

Himeko grinned at her.

"Darn, you said it first. But she's a good friend."

Chikane brushed a stray lock of hair back into place over her ear.

"I know, but I'm still jealous. Often I think the entire world is nothing but an irritant that keeps me from having you all to myself."

"Chikane..."

Impulsively, Himeko grabbed her sister's hand, lacing her fingers together with Chikane's. _Darn it, why do I never know what to say in these moments?_ There was a darkness inside her lover that she didn't really understand, a place where all her doubts and unhappiness went and just...stayed, like food inside a pressure cooker whose lid was Chikane's "Miya-sama" face. She wished she had a better idea of what she needed to do to help.

-X X X-

Chikane felt the warmth of Himeko's hand as the blond girl took hers. A glance at Himeko's face showed her lover's concern, and a faint blush stained Chikane's cheeks. _She's so honest; she couldn't conceal anything from a child. I've gone and upset her again._ She had that worried-puppy look, the one that had made Chikane laugh the first time they'd met in their past life, when Himeko had chased a lost puppy through a rose hedge almost into Chikane's lunch and ended up looking at her with the same face as the dog.

She knew what it meant. She'd gone and let some of the...not unhappiness, precisely, but the potential unhappiness she usually kept inside, out where Himeko could see it. Despair had made Chikane an Orochi in her past life, while now...

She smiled at Himeko, and it was an honest smile. _How odd, that the fact that she's concerned for me burnt away my own doubts in an instant._

"So, since the all-too-perceptive Marika correctly deduced my feelings, would you mind spending the afternoon with me?"

"No, I'd love to."

"Good! Shall we make a proper date of it, then? We probably won't have time tomorrow since we have classes all day, dinner with Mother and Father, and then the party." Several of their classmates were throwing the sisters a birthday party, though who was giving it suggested the party was more for her and Himeko invited as a necessary tag-along. She'd probably spend half her time watching most of the boys and the few of the girls try to get past the shield of her reserve. It wouldn't be particularly difficult, just boring.

She glanced over at Himeko, who smiled brightly as they strolled along, hand-in-hand. The urge to just lean over and kiss her was nearly overwhelming, but she held it in as always. Chikane had to admit, being sisters had been really useful for the first twelve or thirteen years of this life, but once their minds and bodies had started fully awakening into womanhood the advantages had started to become obstacles. She'd have gladly put up with the social difficulties of being an "out" lesbian for the chance to openly be a couple with Himeko, but as things presently stood that wasn't an option.

_It's all temporary, anyway_, she reminded herself, and gave herself up to the joy of spending the afternoon with her beloved. They caught the matinee of a new romance movie (reducing Himeko to sad, then happy tears as the hero and heroine overcame many obstacles on their way to happily-ever-after), visited the aquarium (where Himeko made her laugh by flinching from the shark tank, then made her heart melt at the childlike joy that lit up Himeko's face when she got to pet a live sea turtle) and finally treated themselves to dinner at _Maison Blanc et Noir_ (where Chikane used her past-life memories of being the Himemiya princess to, she admitted to herself, dazzle Himeko by ordering for them both a menu that not only pleased then but impressed the staff with how each course complemented the others).

"That was delicious!" Himeko gushed as they stepped out into the cool night air. "But, wasn't it a bit expensive for us?"

Chikane shook her head.

"Mm-mm," she demurred. "I know I wanted to do this, so I'd been putting money aside for it the past two months."

"Wow, I could never do that. I don't have the willpower to save in advance."

"The girl who makes gods rewrite the rules of the universe doesn't have willpower?" Chikane teased. Himeko stuck her tongue out at her.

"Okay, so I wouldn't have thought of it?"

"Now, _that_ I believe." The two of them laughed. "Shall we head up to the shrine now, Himeko?"

Himeko glanced at her watch.

"It's after eight! The buses have stopped running!"

"We'll just have to walk, then. It'll help us work off dessert, anyway."

"Meanie."

There were a number of Shinto shrines and prayer gates throughout Mahoroba, but the grandest by far, even a bit of a tourist attraction, was the Ohgami Shrine. Tended by the family of that name, it was purportedly an ordinary shrine, but it had a hidden face. Behind the outer shrine, in a cave that reached deep into the mountain's heart, was where the priestesses of the Godless Month performed the ritual to unseal and summon Ame no Murakumo to battle with Orochi. And it was the Ohgami priests who bore the duty of preserving the legends to pass on the knowledge and rites to subsequent incarnations of the shrine maidens.

To say that Takeshi Ohgami was surprised when Chikane and Himeko had come up to him and announced their identity as miko was something of an understatement. He had expected to merely pass on his knowledge uneventfully to his successor, or if necessary to find and educate the Solar and Lunar Priestesses in their duties. Nothing had prepared him for priestesses who knew who they were and came with complete past-life memories.

He'd adapted, though. Faith in his calling had won him through, and he'd become a kind of honorary uncle to the twins. After all, his duty was to support the two of them, and he was wise enough to recognize that "support" meant more than just in a religious or metaphysical sense.

Takeshi _didn't_ know that they were lovers.

Chikane liked the stately lines of the shrine and the priest's residence, done in traditional style. Too, she savored the tranquility of the garden, its almost rhythmic stillness. Taking a cup of tea on the steps often enabled her to relax, to achieve a calm that wasn't just her usual outer shell, but actually soothed her jangling nerves.

It wasn't Takeshi when they saw when they arrived, though, but a tall woman with large, round-framed glasses and pale green hair pulled back in a bun. She was sweeping the walk by moonlight, using a bamboo-handled broom.

"P-Professor Ohgami!" Himeko exclaimed.

"Ah, the Wonder Twins. Marika said you'd be by. Saying your last prayers before the end of the world comes?"

Chikane frowned while Himeko smiled at Professor Ohgami's teasing. For some reason it just rubbed the elder twin the wrong way, while Himeko found it funny. Minako Ohgami had never made her disbelief a secret, though Chikane had to admit it wasn't personal. Apparently she had an equal good-natured contempt for her younger brother's calling as shrine priest.

"Uh-huh!" Himeko answered cheerfully. "I'm surprised to see you out sweeping, though."

"It helps me think," Professor Ohgami said. "I do housework whenever I just want to let my brain float free and work out something that's been bothering me."

"You're lucky, Professor. Whenever I let my attention wander during housework I prick myself on a needle or run the vacuum cleaner over my foot or break dishes."

Chikane giggled.

"Ah, that would explain your last quiz, then, Hikari," the professor said with a grin. Although her research work was regularly published and often award-winning, she also insisted on teaching one section of first-year biology at Kamiyatate University. Chikane didn't have that class since she'd bypassed it through the advanced placement program in high school, but Himeko did and said that Professor Ohgami was a very good teacher although hard. "You'd best keep your focus if you're going to do better on the one I'm thinking up now."

"Yes, ma'am," Himeko sighed.

"Look on the bright side. If the apocalypse does start tomorrow, then you won't have to study for it." She smiled and added, "Now go on; I'm sure you have better things to do than listen to a middle-aged lady make jokes at your expense, and I need to figure out how to phrase question four. But happy early birthday to both of you."

"Thank you, Professor Ohgami," Chikane acknowledged formally.

"Thank you, ma'am."

They walked up the path and into the shrine.

-X X X-

No lights were lit inside Ohgami Shrine; the priest would not permit any modernization but candles and lamps were not kept burning when no one was present. Nonetheless it was still easy to see; the building was positively bathed by the light of the full moon, shining through screens designed for that purpose. Himeko thought it was kind of spooky, so she glanced over at Chikane as if by reflex.

"Do...do you think this will be the year, Chikane?" she asked.

"Who knows?" her lover said, not angrily but almost fatalistically.

"We were so sure three years ago, since it was our sixteenth birthday last time," Himeko said. "But it didn't happen, and not since."

"Wouldn't it be ironic if it didn't happen at all?"

"Eh?"

"The one time, perhaps, the only time when we know who we are and what is expected of us, would be the time when we are here simply to live? Wouldn't that be a great, cruel joke on us by the gods?"

"Chikane! You can't believe that!"

"I wonder sometimes. Perhaps Professor Ohgami is right. Perhaps this whole idea of past-life memories and a magical destiny is just something that we're tricking ourselves with, first to make us feel special and then to justify...what we are to each other."

Himeko didn't know what to say; she'd never heard Chikane talk this way.

"Don't you have any doubts, Himeko? Don't you ever lie there at night and wonder, 'What if this is it? What if all there is, is this life together?' If we're sisters in reality rather than just occupying that role for a time?"

Himeko shook her head.

"No," she said. There was a catch in her voice, and she could tell she was on the verge of tears. "Are you s-saying that you don't w-want to be with me?"

"Oh, Himeko." Chikane clenched a fist, her nails biting into her skin to leave little half-moon crescents, then opened it and raised the hand to cup Himeko's face. "I will love you and only you for as long as this or any other world lasts. I want to be with you every minute of every day so badly it's an unbearable torment. If I didn't have you beside me I think I would go mad."

Relief washed through Himeko like a purifying flood.

"Then that's all right, isn't it?"

"But, we've gone our whole lives assuming that everything is transitory, that one day we won't be here, that the future our friends and classmates are planning for will never come for us. What if we're wrong? What if we do have to face becoming adults, finding work, growing older, everything that everyone else in the world does?"

"We should get a cat."

"A cat?"

"Mm-hm," Himeko said, nodding. "Maybe two or three."

"But why?"

"Well, if we're going to grow up to be like those crazy old sister ladies who live together and never marry that you hear about, shouldn't we own cats?"

Chikane looked at her incredulously, then dissolved into helpless laughter that was partly from Himeko's joke and partly just from the release of tension. Himeko put her arms around her and held her close while Chikane half-laughed, half-wept against her shoulder for what seemed like forever.

After a while, it finally slowed and Chikane straightened up.

"Thank you, Himeko."

"You shouldn't _worry_ so much, Chikane," Himeko said earnestly. "Maybe the Orochi will come tomorrow, or maybe the world will just go on and on as it is, but it doesn't matter. So long as I can be with you through it, then I'm happy."

She turned back to the moonlit shrine, bowed her head, and prayed for exactly that.

* * *

_NOTE: Of course, the clamshell is a shout-out to Ep. 8 of the anime. I guess Himeko is just cursed to get weird comments whenever she buys engraved jewelry for Chikane. As for the puppy incident, take a glance at Vol. 2, p. 153, panel 1 of the manga--apparently, they met each other that way just as they did in the anime!_


	3. Those Who Are Called

Himeko slowly, lazily came awake, sleep receding gently like the tide going out. It was a pleasant, drowsy feeling and yet somehow something seemed wrong about it. The worry buzzed at her while consciousness returned, until she was almost ready to face Monday morning.

_Monday._

That was it. She shouldn't be waking up naturally on a Monday! Where was the shrill beep of the alarm clock, or Chikane's insistent voice? What was going on?

She opened her eyes and found herself staring into the eyes of a pink teddy bear that was cradling a red rose and a folded slip of paper in its plush arms. Himeko rubbed the sleep from her own eyes and read the note.

_Himeko,_

_I'm sorry I couldn't be there in person to say it, but since you don't have any classes until eleven I wanted to let you sleep. Shall we have lunch at our usual place?_

_Happy birthday,_

_Chikane_

Himeko set the note down and sighed happily.

"Isn't she sweet, Mr. Bear? Or maybe Miss Bear, since you're pink?" She squeezed the stuffed toy. "Oh, you're almost as soft and huggable as Chikane. It had better be Mr. Bear; I don't want to hug any other girl." She set the bear back down, took the time to smell the rosebud, then got dressed. The last thing she did before she left the room was slip her gift for Chikane into her bag along with her books. They'd probably exchange gifts over lunch, but even if they didn't she wasn't going to leave it behind. "You never know what might happen!" she told the bear.

-X X X-

The dark sun was a serpent's eye. It looked into the hearts and souls of the humans that crawled like ants across the face of the world, sought out those whose hatred had corrupted them into something greater, whose rage made them stand out, whose despair had transfigured them. It found them, eight of them, and it sent its shining darkness into their hearts. They were the dark sun's extensions into the world, the necks that captured its prey.

And it would give them fangs.

**Awaken.**

Junichi Ozawa sat bolt upright in his jail cell. He could feel it, twitching beneath his skin like electricity along his nerves.

"Hey, man, what's wrong?" his cellmate suddenly asked. "You on a bad trip or something?"

Ozawa held up a hand, clenching it into a fist. The rage mounted within him, and as it did violet flames seemed to cloud his vision.

**Those of despair.**

Akemi Kuroda's fingers slipped as she ran the whetstone along the knife's edge, so that it dropped onto the table next to the three blades she'd already sharpened. The voice seemed to bubble up from the depths of her soul, whispering at her, but it was different than the voices she usually heard, stronger, cleaner.

It told her that the world was full of Kazuos. There were always more of them, breeding in the cracks, in the cesspools of humanity. She'd never finish the work of removing them. Not one by one.

**Those of shattered dreams.**

Keiichi Hirata's hand jerked as he heard the voice, smearing a swatch of paint across the work. _Gah! It's ruined!_ echoed in his mind. The work he'd put into it, the painstaking effort was all gone. But what did it matter, anyway? This wasn't art or craftsmanship, it was like being an office drudge, all routine tasks to finish, only it was worse because it mocked him, mocked his spirit, mocked his hopes and dreams and everything he'd wanted to be. The world had looked at him and judged his craft to be worthless, that only in copying others could he be valued.

Who would want to live in a world like that? Who could tolerate it?

**Those of Orochi.**

Saori Takamine flung her cell phone onto the bed viciously. That was the fifth time, the _fifth_! These women were supposed to be her _friends_, damn it! They'd come from the same place, fought and clawed their way up, washed off the scum of the streets, painted and polished and won their way free, _damn_ it! But now, not one of them would help her, introduce her to new clients, new hopes. Oh, they'd been properly apologetic, and Mina had even offered to toss a crumb or two her way in the way of routine work, but there was nothing in that. The unspoken message had been there, those words ringing loud and clear though never articulated: _You're too old._

She'd thought she was free, thought she'd bettered herself, but now she knew better. It was the world that had plucked her up by chance, used her for a time until she'd come to believe it was due to something special in her, then thrown her away when it had taken what it wanted.

But now, the voice whispered, she knew there truly _was_ something special in her. And it was the world that would pay.

**Arise.**

They'd been there at the funeral, of course. It was, after all, an obligation, and Yuujirou Abe's co-workers were very attentive to duty. Chief Executive Officer Nishida had attended in person to offer his condolences on behalf of the company.

Only the thought of the insult to his wife's spirit had kept Abe from wrapping his hands around the old man's throat and throttling every last hypocritical word from his body.

Everything he'd done was for nothing. He'd worked hard, believing himself part of a family of colleagues, men and women doing their best for one another and each other's families, the urban equivalent of how farmers or fishermen would pull together in rural villages to ensure the welfare of all. But they weren't a village. They weren't a family. They were the hired minions of old men bloated on greed who lied to them to extract more value without having to compensate them for it.

But it would change. The dark sun that had taken fire in his heart told him how they could be made to pay. The users in power. The drones who connived at their own slavery. The whole, stinking world that had taken everything of value from him.

**Destroy the Solar Priestess.**

"Damn, Kei, you look like you've been through the wringer," the girl--Kei Tsujimura thought her name was Eriko, though he wasn't certain--marveled. She didn't know the half of it; he was stiff and sore all over besides the ugly bruises and the only reason he hadn't needed a trip to the hospital was because Mori's thug knew exactly what he was doing, was an expert at his craft.

"Don't worry, babe. Let's just say the important parts are all working, if you get my drift."

She wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, right. Maybe one day when you don't look like something the cat dragged in. You think I want my friends to see me hanging with a guy that looks like he's from some zombie flick?" Maybe-Eriko sniffed, spun, and walked away from him. Her stiletto heels made her hips swivel, but they seemed to intentionally mock Kei, taunting him with what he couldn't have. Yet another person saying they were _better_ than he was, that he was some piece of trash they found useful, just like that girl had when she'd been hot and looking for action a month ago. But he didn't belong; he was only worth their attention so long as he was useful, and when that moment passed it was good riddance to Kei.

Well, maybe it was time to change. The holier-than-thou assholes who used him and tossed him out, it was his turn to show them that _he_ was the one that didn't need _them_!

_**Destroy the Lunar Priestess!**_

-X X X-

"Happy birthday, Miya-sama!"

"Happy birthday!"

"Congratulations! Happy birthday!"

It had been that way the whole morning for Chikane. A good three-fourths of her fellow students in each class would offer their birthday wishes either before or after the class started. She politely thanked each of them for their kindness. Some offered gifts, but these she demurred, as she had since junior high. Accepting, she felt, would create a level of intimacy, imply the existence of a connection that she didn't feel or want. Chikane was polite about it, though; she didn't want to hurt anyone, either, and there were probably some whose feelings were sincere.

And it wasn't as if she could announce that she was seeing someone to chase away the infatuated.

She slipped her notebooks into her satchel and checked her watch. She was running behind, but still would be able to make it to the fine arts building for her music class without having to sprint across campus. It would be undignified, a crack in her armor, and she hated that. The perfect Miya-sama could keep people comfortably at bay, but ordinary Tsukuyo Asamiya wasn't so good at that. Sometimes she envied Himeko her free and easy ways, the honesty with which she accepted her own feelings.

Chikane turned towards the door, but another girl blocked her path between the rows of desks. They were the last two people in the classroom; the girl had obviously waited for the rest of the class to clear out before approaching her. Chikane's heart sank.

"Mi--I mean, Tsukuyo? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"I'm running late for my next class, Reiko. Can it wait until after lunch?"

She knew Reiko Himemiya, of course. Chikane had been a little curious to learn that the Himemiya family had a daughter within two months of her own age, an odd coincidence given her past life.

Reiko bit her lip.

"It won't take long," she said quietly and a little defensively.

Chikane gave in. If Himeko could sprint to classes without getting uptight over it, so could she.

"All right. Is it about tonight's party?" No doubt Reiko was footing a large slice of the bill.

"Sort of, but not really, though." Reiko took a deep breath. "Tsukuyo, I know that I'm not the most beautiful or charming girl in the school. I mean, you'd be a far better heiress than I am. Whenever Father introduces me to someone important, I just want to hide behind a potted plant."

That was, unfortunately, the truth.

"Reiko," Chikane tried to be supportive, "you don't have anything to be ashamed of. You're a good person in your own right: earnest and generous, a good student..." She racked her brain for compliments and came up short. She just didn't know Reiko well enough to say anything worthwhile.

Reiko sniffled a little.

"Th-thank you, Tsukuyo." Apparently Chikane's meager offering had meant something, which was perhaps the saddest part of the whole conversation. "It's just that next to someone as beautiful and good as you--"

Chikane shook her head.

"I'm not that good a person. I've done many things that I regret. Hikari could tell you about them, the many times I've taken the wrong path. You know what the Christians say about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions." She stopped herself firmly. Gods, she was becoming maudlin, and Reiko didn't want to hear her whine.

"Hikari could, huh?"

_That's odd_, Chikane thought. It almost sounded like...

"But then, why should I be surprised?" Reiko went on. "Everything is always about _her_, isn't it? Everyone has always loved you, ever since we were children. You were always a gentle light shining on all of us, lifting us out of the darkness of our petty, commonplace lives. But we were _nothing_ to you! Our names, our faces memorized by rote, but you never accepted our love in return, only allowed you to worship you from afar. Only Hikari could come close to you, to shine any light back upon your life."

It poured out of Reiko in a torrent of frustration, her jealousy and thwarted desires crashing over Chikane with an almost physical force. It actually made Chikane flinch away from her.

_This malice and despair I feel from her...it feels like..._

"To everyone else, to _me_, you were just like your name, as cold and remote as the moon!"

Something dark flickered in the depths of her eyes.

"Or should I say, Lunar Priestess!"

"Orochi!" Chikane gasped, flinging herself aside as Reiko's palm swung towards her. It was just a girl's wild slap, but her hand crackled with violet and black lightning.

"Yes!" Reiko shouted, clenching her fists. "Finally I have the strength to express my feelings, to let you know the pain you've caused me and everyone else who cares for you!"

"I didn't ask for your feelings," Chikane snapped. "You're the one forcing them on me."

"Didn't you? Always so composed, always carrying yourself with such grace and poise and perfection? How were we supposed to feel when a goddess descended among us?"

Chikane snarled.

"So this is why you've fallen into darkness, Reiko? Because you've built an illusion of me up in your mind and you can't stand that there's a difference between your fantasy and my real feelings?"

"I've loved you for years!"

"You've loved _nothing_ but a dream of your own ego!"

Reiko screamed, then slapped her hand against the edge of a desk, launching it up across the room. Chikane barely dodged in time and the desk crushed itself to a shower of splinters against the wall from the force of the impact.

_There's a plan, Chikane. Make her mad at you_. Why hadn't she thought about this possibility, not Reiko specifically but that _some_ Orochi would appear? Was she that content with the ordinary life she'd shared with Himeko these nineteen years?

She needed a weapon, a plan, _something_. The crackling violet and black energies were playing freely across Reiko's body now, and a shape seemed to be manifesting in the air around her, a translucent image of an armored knight with rotting wings, a long, straight sword clenched in its fist.

"Do you recognize it, Lunar Priestess? The Shadow of the god, Take no Sukunazuchi. Can you stand against its power, Tsukuyo?"

Reiko held up her hand, and the Shadow flowed and coalesced into her palm, the translucence becoming solidity as it formed itself into a jet-black sword, its blade long and straight, the quillions curving like horns.

Chikane bolted for the door, but Reiko whipped her arm up in an arc, light bursting from the blade and blowing a chunk out of the wall.

"No, no, you can't leave. This is _our_ party, a dance for just the two of us. I've been nothing up until now, but in the end I'll be the last thing you'll think of."

Chikane was afraid she was right. The willingness to fight was one thing, but against the Orochi, what could she do? The black sword might not have had the sheer physical intimidation of the mecha-like metal titan from Chikane's memories, but she'd already seen what it could do.

Reiko charged, slicing down in a powerful overhand swing. Chikane pivoted aside at the last second, hooked her foot against the Orochi's ankles, and pushed Reiko hard in the back. She went stumbling past, crashing into the teacher's desk and then falling over completely. Chikane turned to run, when she was stopped by the echoes of a feminine voice in her head.

**Awaken.**

Memories bottled up within her. memories she knew well but that nonetheless came to life, replaying in her mind the final confrontation with Himeko, her own relentless desire to die and Himeko's equal, no far stronger refusal to let her, Himeko's "I love you"s echoing over and over as she wielded them like weapons against Chikane's doubts and fear.

**Maidens who shine upon the mortal world's night and day, awaken.**

A heat seemed to burn from Chikane's back, between her shoulder blades.

**Solar Priestess! Lunar Priestess!**

Chikane swayed as the visions released her, but Reiko was up and coming at her again, sword held low in a thrusting position. Chikane clapped her hands together, catching the blade. She could feel a hideous cold radiating from Reiko's weapon, but a gentle warmth seemed to be keeping it from her hands. Chikane twisted the blade away and down, then released it and drove the heel of her hand into Reiko's face, breaking the girl's nose and sending her reeling back. Chikane bolted for the door, but another scream from Reiko had her diving and rolling aside in the hall as another burst of violet energy pierced the air where she had been.

Running wasn't going to be enough to shake off the Orochi, Chikane realized, but now, perhaps, she had a weapon to use. The awakening had quickened something within her as it had been quickened within Reiko.

_"Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi! May the moon's light capture this place within its radiance!"_

A pale light sprang up, blocking the doorway just before Reiko reached it; she rebounded off it as if it was a wall--which for all intents and purposes it was; Chikane's invocation had bound the classroom as a sealed space within a barrier.

Unfortunately, there was no way the barrier would hold Reiko for long, not while she wielded the power of Take no Sukunazuchi. She lashed out against it and tiny white lines threaded through the pale light, radiating out from the point of impact like fractures in a glass window. Chikane ran for it, bolting down the hall and into the stairwell, stopping on the second-floor landing and enclosed the third floor within a second barrier. She then continued down the stairs at a dead run and crashed through the doors at the bottom leading out onto the sunlit campus. She then turned back, and though the effort brought on a stabbing pain behind her eyes she created yet another sealed space, this one encompassing the entire building. With luck, she could get far enough away, out of sight so Reiko wouldn't see her by the time she broke out of the last bounded area.

She couldn't afford to waste any more time with this fight. Even as an awakened--no, _partially_ awakened--priestess, she wasn't likely to win one-on-one against Reiko, and there was something more important she needed to be doing anyway.

_Himeko._

More than one head turned as Chikane wove her way between students at a full-tilt sprint. Just a few minutes ago she'd actually been worried about that, about looking foolish or undignified while doing this very thing, yet now she did it without hesitation. If the Orochi were coming after her, the Lunar Priestess, then they would be just as eager to destroy the Solar Priestess. Himeko might have been adequate in battle with a priestess's sword in her hand, but beyond that her martial skills were nowhere near Chikane's. She had to get to Himeko, to protect her.

_Who am I trying to fool?_ she thought ruefully. Even if Himeko had been the greatest warrior in history, Chikane would still be doing what she was doing then. The desire to protect wasn't based upon some logical analysis of risks, but came from her heart.

The twins knew each other's class schedules, so Chikane had a fairly good idea of where she'd find Himeko: somewhere between the foreign-language lab and the applied sciences building. She took a sharp right around the central fountain, nearly crashing into a knot of upperclassmen. One jerked back suddenly from the near-contact and his canned coffee spilled, splattering across the front of Chikane's shirt. He started to apologize, but she didn't so much as wait to brush it off and say it was her fault, but wove through the students and kept right on going, leaving them shaking their heads in disbelief.

-X X X-

"And then she said _what_? Man, that's cold!" Uetake laughed, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, yeah," Kajiyama replied. "Dude's usually about as thick as a brick, but he got the message all right. Looked like he wanted to melt through the floor!"

The two boys were classmates of Himeko's in her calculus section; they'd met on the way to class. They were nice enough, but she was feeling terribly embarrassed since they'd started discussing how Chikane had turned down--publicly, sharply, and very throughly--the attempt of another boy to ask her out.

"I'm...I'm very sorry for your friend," Himeko offered.

"Geez, Hikari, don't _apologize_," Uetake said. "Guy got what was coming to him."

"But his feelings must have been badly hurt."

Kajiyama laughed sharply.

"Oh, man, that just makes it worse! He gets shot down in flames and the girl's sister feels sorry for him!"

"But--"

"Hikari, you're a nice kid, but this is a matter of pride as a man. You do _not_ approach a girl like your sister with a weak game and cornball lines. It makes all of us look like chumps," Uetake explained, somewhat melodramatically. "Cheesy pick-up lines only work if the girl was into you to begin with. Guy makes an honest try from the heart, it's a different story. We've all been there. But you do your thinking from somewhere a little south of there and it blows up in your face, hell yeah we're gonna point fingers and laugh."

"I guess if you put it that way," Himeko said tentatively.

Suddenly, there was a loud boom, like a clap of thunder or a firework going up. Their conversation forgotten, the three students looked around in confusion and shock like everyone else near them was.

"Hey, over there!" Uetake said and pointed to where a plume of black, inky smoke was rising like a dark stain into the sky.

"Man, was it a gas leak? Some kind of bomb?" The two boys drifted off, trying to get a better look.

The memories struck Himeko like a fist clamped around her heart, of a previous birthday when violence had erupted at her school, heralding the return of the Orochi. _No, it can't be..._

"Himeko!"

Her head snapped around in the direction of the voice.

"Chikane?"

Chikane was sprinting towards her at a dead run.

"Come on, Himeko; we have to get out of here!"

"Chikane, what's wrong?" Her hair was wild and askew, her clothing rumpled, and a large brown stain was splashed across the front of her blouse.

"Reiko is a Neck of Orochi! She attacked me in the classroom after Japanese literature."

"What?" Himeko squeaked. "I don't understand! Reiko..."

"Reiko Himemiya. Maybe it runs in the bloodline, somehow. That's not important, though. What matters is that we have to get you out of here _now_, before she or one of the others comes after you."

"Then that explosion..."

"I trapped her in the building so I could get away. She must have broken out. Come on, Himeko; we need to get to the Ohgami Shrine. It's protected by barriers that will prevent them from being able to sense our location."

Himeko shook her head, bewildered. This wasn't making any sense at all. It wasn't that she didn't understand about the Orochi, of course; the _concept_ she understood. But the _feeling_ was missing. The last time, even while she'd had no idea what was actually happening, she'd been aware of _something_, a kind of feeling that bound herself to the attacking Orochi and to her fellow priestess even before she'd actually known that Chikane _was_ the Lunar Priestess. The shared destiny that encompassed them all created a link between them that she'd felt even if she hadn't understood it.

This was different. Himeko now had knowledge of what the Orochi were, of their goals, and of her own role as Solar Priestess, but the feeling was gone, the emotion. Everything was strictly operating on an intellectual level, and it confused her.

Chikane had taken her by the hand and was all but dragging her towards the entrance to the campus, intent on getting her away from the Orochi. She clearly didn't have any of these problems, but for Himeko, the questions had to be answered..

"Chikane, wait!"

She dug her heels in, pulled them to a stop.

"Himeko, we can't stand around here. Reiko could be after us any minute now."

"Well, I don't see any giant robots stomping through the trees right now, so I think I deserve an answer!" She shut her mouth quickly, slightly ashamed of losing her temper in that fashion, but it did work because it brought Chikane up short. She hesitated a moment, and when she did speak her voice was quiet, almost cowed.

"There wasn't any 'giant robot' or anything like that. It was just her, although she was surrounded by a dark aura that she called the Shadow of Take no Sukunazuchi. That's the name of the god of the First Neck."

"But still, you beat her?"

Chikane shook her head.

"No; all I managed to do was run away. If I hadn't awakened as Lunar Priestess I wouldn't have ever done that; I just kept stacking barriers in her path."

Himeko's eyes widened.

"You...awakened as Lunar Priestess?"

"Just in time. I understood that Ame no Murakumo calls to us in response to the Orochi Necks being awakened, but that gap of time...wait, Himeko, why are you asking? The call is to Lunar and Solar Priestess together, so you must have..."

Himeko shook her head, her puzzlement mounting.

"No, that's why I'm so confused, and..."

As usual, Chikane got to the answer first, and the sudden fear in her expression told Himeko that it wasn't a good answer. Chikane's fingers flew to the slight V-neck of Himeko's shirt. It was a modest dip that barely exposed below the hollow of her throat, but Chikane changed that in a hurry, tearing it open nearly to her belly button.

"Chikane! What are you--" Himeko yelped, but the shocked, almost fearful look on her beloved's face stopped her. "Chikane, what is it?"

The Lunar Priestess's hand trembled as it came to touch Himeko's bare skin just above the start of her cleavage. Himeko looked down at herself, trying to see what Chikane was looking at.

"The...the sun symbol," Chikane said. "There's no mark there." Her eyes lifted to meet Himeko's.

"D-does this mean," Himeko stammered, "that I'm _not_ the Solar Priestess?"

--

_Any similarity between Chikane's incantation and anything even vaguely resembling a genuine Shinto prayer is obviously a colossal joke at my expense._


	4. Meetings Within Shrines

The absence of the mark of the Solar Priestess left both girls momentarily stunned, but Chikane's fear for Himeko's safety won out over shock and she got them away from the college, down the stairs, and onto the bus that headed out towards Ohgami Shrine. The driver gave them a surprised look--Chikane's stained shirt and Himeko's ripped one certainly attracted attention--but one of Chikane's scathing glances got him to mind his own business.

Himeko was grateful for her sister's care; she was in a stunned state, trying to come to some understanding of what had happened. Chikane found them a seat in the back, well away from anyone else.

"Is...is it because I'm not a virgin, Chikane?" she suddenly blurted out.

Chikane blinked.

"I mean, it's only the blood of a pure priestess that can be used to summon Ame no Murakumo or Yamata no Orochi, right? So maybe I didn't hear the voice because I'm not pure to begin with?"

Chikane shook her head.

"That can't be it."

"What? Why not?"

She reached down and took Himeko's hand, then grinned. Despite her own worries, Himeko was happy to see the smile, the amusement in Chikane's eyes.

"Because I'm no more of a virgin than you are. No, I'm sure that requirement specifically means that we have to be technically...intact, or at least unpenetrated, since there's lots of ways other than sex that could happen. And we've been careful to keep our lovemaking to ways that wouldn't cross that particular line."

Himeko thought it over, then nodded.

"I think you're right, Chikane. After all, in our past lives you _took_ my virginity and that didn't disqualify you as Lunar Priestess."

"And virgin or not, you were still the Solar Priestess. You still chose the new world. So the requirement of 'purity' only applies to the use of our blood in the summoning rituals."

"So it's something else, then. But what could it be?"

Chikane frowned.

"I don't know. Maybe Reverend Ohgami can help figure it out. He has access to a lot of information that we don't."

"Yeah, maybe he'll--" Himeko suddenly snapped bolt upright. "Oh, no, Marika!"

"What?"

"She's still at school!"

She dug into her bag and fished out her cell phone, scrolled past Chikane's name and autodialed Marika. It rang once, then twice, then Marika answered.

"Hey, Hikari, happy birthday! Did you hear all the excitement?"

"Marika! I'm so glad you're all right!"

"Yeah, me too. I'm glad I didn't have any history or lit classes this morning, though. They're saying it was a gas leak, but that's like the generic coverup for any suspicious explosion in any story ever written so who knows?"

"Marika, you should get back to the shrine."

"Go home? Hey, you _know_ something, don't you? It really is a cover-up! What's going on?"

"We'll explain when we all get there," Himeko said, since Chikane and Marika's father could both do a better job of explaining things. "Oh," she added belatedly, "if you see Reiko Himemiya, stay away from her!"

"_Reiko?_ Are you saying she had something to do with this?"

"I think so. Chikane says she's an Orochi."

"_Orochi?_ You're telling me that priestess stuff was all _real_?"

"You didn't believe me?"

"Um...well...it's not so much that I didn't believe you as it didn't matter. I mean, you're my best friend regardless of your weird love life. Of course, it's cool that you're not crazy, too, although, you know, end of the world and all that..."

"Just...get home safe, okay?"

"Gotcha. I'll be careful."

Marika hung up and Himeko put away her phone.

"Is she all right?"

"Uh huh. I'm so glad of that."

"Me, too. She's goofy, but she's your good friend."

They said very little the rest of the way. The moment they had both dreaded and anticipated had come, but instead of being as expected it had brought surprises and fear for both of them.

-X X X-

Chikane had been intellectually aware that Takeshi Ohgami regularly performed the proper rites to maintain the shrine's sanctity, but as the awakened Lunar Priestess she could actually feel the shift in energies when she stepped through the prayer gate marking the boundary.

"Did you--?" she began to ask Himeko, then realized it wouldn't make any difference, just serve as further confirmation of what Himeko _wasn't_ and just cause her beloved more pain.

"Eh?"

Chikane shook her head.

"Nothing."

They went up to the house and rang the bell. A moment later the sliding door opened.

"Oh!"

"Professor Ohgami!" Himeko echoed.

"I didn't expect to see the two of you here."

"Or we you," Chikane said evenly.

The professor grinned wryly.

"No Monday lectures. I'm overseeing a 3:00 lab section, as Hikari knows, but nothing before that. It's a schedule well-suited to cope with the wild night life of an academic. Now, I happen to know that you don't have a similar excuse." Her gaze flicked from one to the other. "Are you all right? You don't look hurt, but your clothes are telling a story."

Chikane shook her head.

"No, things are most definitely not 'all right,' as you put it. We need to speak to Reverend Ohgami."

"Did something happen to Marika?" the professor immediately asked.

"No, no, she's fine," Himeko reassured her. "She's on her way here now."

"Marika, too? Then what's going on?"

"Do you remember what you wished us last night? Let's just say that Himeko doesn't have to worry about studying for your quiz."

"Yamata no Orochi?" Professor Ohgami caught her meaning at once. "Surely you can't expect me to believe--?"

"All I would like from you, Professor, is to know where Reverend Ohgami is."

"He's in the shrine. If, however, you think that I'm simply going to let this go, you are sadly mistaken." Her eyes met Chikane's evenly. "To my way of thinking, this little fantasy of yours has gotten completely out of hand. It is no longer an amusing quirk and may well pose a danger to my family. I will expect proof of these outrageous claims of yours."

"You'll have it."

Professor Ohgami just arched an eyebrow.

"Um..." Himeko put in. "Before we do that, could I borrow a safety pin? My hand's getting tired holding my shirt closed."

"Of course." She stepped inside and came back with one in under a minute. Himeko fumbled with it and managed to prick herself.

"Here, let me," Chikane said. She gathered up the torn edges of the fabric and secured them back into place. The shirt, she thought regretfully, was a total loss, thanks to her stupid impulsiveness. She needed to control herself better or she wouldn't be any good to Himeko at all. "There."

"Thank you, Chikane."

"All wardrobe malfunctions repaired? Then let's go."

They crossed over to the shrine and found the priest inside as his sister had said. Takeshi Ohgami was dressed formally in wide-sleeved jacket and billowing _hakama_ pants. Chikane realized then that she'd never once seen him in Western garb, be it a suit or T-shirt and shorts. He was an attractive man with hair the same mint-green shade as his sister; Himeko and Marika had once suggested that he kept that hair cropped close and sported his neatly trimmed moustache to add some sense of maturity and masculinity to his pretty-boy looks.

"What's happened?" he asked at once, noting both the expressions on the three women's faces and the general atmosphere surrounding them. "Marika--?"

"No, it's nothing about her," Professor Ohgami assured the worried father. "Tsukuyo and Hikari have something to say."

"Miss Asamiya?" His gaze naturally went to Chikane.

"The Godless Month has come at last. The Necks of Yamata no Orochi have been called. They tried to kill me, or at least one of them did. Reiko Himemiya."

"Miss Himemiya attempted to kill you with a cup of coffee?"

"No, Professor, that's from when I was trying to get to Himeko; I nearly ran over someone. She tried to kill me with Take no Sukunazuchi--or its Shadow, whatever that means. It's one of the things I wanted to ask you about, Reverend."

He nodded.

"I see."

"I don't," his elder sister said flatly. "You promised proof, Tsukuyo, and while I didn't mind waiting until we were with Takeshi, I think now is the time for it."

"All right."

Chikane turned her back to the Ohgamis, then pulled her hair forward over her shoulder so it wouldn't interfere with the view. She then pulled up her shirt to her neck to expose what she knew would be there, the mark like a tattoo of a crescent moon with the horns pointing upward.

"So?" Professor Ohgami said.

"It's the mark of the Lunar Priestess," the priest said.

"Or the product of any vaguely competent tattoo parlor."

Chikane didn't answer in words, but instead called upon her power as Lunar Priestess. It was actually fairly hard, trying to make it manifest without actually _doing_ anything with that power, but she'd been trained in how to fulfill her role. She felt the tingling throb from her back and saw the silvery radiance cast, and knew that she'd succeeded in making the full symbol, the true, ornately drawn crest to show itself.

"I don't believe it!" Professor Ohgami gasped. "How--?"

Chikane couldn't resist a tight little smile, almost a smirk, of her vindication, though no one else could see it.

"It's like metal inlaid right into her skin."

She let it go, relaxing so that the mark faded to its regular, passive state. Chikane pulled her shirt back down, swept her hair into place, and turned around.

"Do you believe us now?" she asked Professor Ohgami directly. There was no sign left on her face of the surprise her voice had showed, only an amused smile.

"I'd certainly say that the weight of evidence has shifted to your side...Lunar Priestess."

"If Yamata no Orochi has been revived," the priest said, quickly adapting to business, "then we must make preparations to summon Ame no Murakumo as soon as possible. That has to be the first step."

Chikane shook her head.

"No, I'm afraid that the first step has to be to find the Solar Priestess."

"What? But I thought that your sister..." He and the professor turned to Himeko, who looked down, flustered.

"That's one of the things we need to talk about, Reverend."

He nodded.

"Then perhaps we should return to the house where we can talk things over in more comfortable surroundings."

-X X X-

The place of crimson _torii_ rearing out of swirling mists did not lie anywhere that could be reached by merely traveling. It existed apart from normal space, accessible only by the power of the seething black orb that pulsed in the red-lit sky above. This was the haven for the minions of Orochi.

"You had the Lunar Priestess in your grasp, and you let her get away," said Junichi Ozawa. The Seventh Neck stated it flatly, as a fact. The prayer gate he stood atop was dozens of feet away from the others, but they heard him as easily as if he'd been standing next to them.

"She didn't beat me!" Reiko shouted back. "She just ran away."

"Yo, that's what he just said," drawled the Second Neck. "You need the batteries on that thing checked or something?"

"Don't be an ass, Kei," interjected Hirata.

"Hey, you can't push me around, _Fifth_. I'm as much of an Orochi as you are." As if to prove his point, the black aura sprang up around him, the Shadow of a seething black beast like a jellyfish with a pulpy central mass and writhing tentacles. Hirata's face seemed to solidify into a jet black passion mask, flames flicking from within the open-mouthed, rigid smile.

"Stop it, both of you!" Abe shouted. The Third Neck slammed his fist down on his torii, producing a thunderous echo that jolted Hirata and Kei both. "We have been given a sacred charge by Yamata no Orochi! We are the ones chosen to bring destruction on this filthy world that has betrayed us! How can we sit here, squabbling amongst ourselves?"

"Human nature," Saori purred, tossing her hair. "Besides, Abe, I adore watching men fight. It's so deliciously primal. Don't you agree, Akemi?"

"Garbage," the Sixth Neck stated. She lightly caressed the polished blade of a knife.

"These petty arguments solve nothing," Ozawa declared flatly. "I want an answer. How was it that the Lunar Priestess escaped you, bearer of the strongest of the Orochi gods?"

"She used her own powers as a miko against me," Reiko snapped. "This isn't like those of you who settled your personal problems--"

"We agreed to let you handle the Lunar Priestess because she _was_ your personal problem," Akemi corrected her.

"That doesn't matter! The point is that she is the Lunar Priestess, not some ordinary person armed with knives or guns. Like us, her power comes from the gods."

"Yet Ame no Murakumo remains sealed, does it not?" Ozawa observed. "Her power is limited."

"It's because Reiko screwed it up," Kei drawled. "She got involved, made it all mean too much to herself." He pounded his fist into his palm. "I won't make that mistake. I'll teach that priestess what it means to take on the Orochi."

"I'll go," Akemi contradicted him.

"I agree," said Ozawa.

"Whaaa--?"

"She is a killer. We all are the messengers of Orochi; we all bear the same malice towards the world as a whole, but only the Sixth Neck has taken life with her own hands. Even I, thoroughly trained by the military, have only struck by remote in real life. Destroying the Lunar Priestess will be done face-to-face, her blood extracted to summon Yamata no Orochi and her body left twitching in the dust."

"Don't give me that crap. You think that man-hating bitch can do a better job than me?"

"But of course," said Saori. Kei glared at her, looking as if he was about to pick a second fight, but Abe spoke up first.

"I agree with Ozawa. We are all resolute in our dedication to Orochi, but our skills differ. I believe that Akemi is the best fitted for this task."

"It is settled, then. Find her and kill her, so that Orochi may be unleashed without a way for those petty fools to fight back."

"And this world, which has so badly wronged us all, shall die," Saori concluded.

-X X X-

Steam rose from porcelain cups as Takeshi Ohgami brewed the bitter green tea. Though he was merely offering hospitality to his guests and not performing the formal tea ceremony, his movements nonetheless had the ease and grace of someone who was _sensei_ at that difficult art. Though he was no doubt bursting with anxiety on the inside, he projected nothing but serenity and calm. Himeko was impressed by his ability to retain his composure; he was even better at it than Chikane. She, too, had recovered herself after proving her point in the shrine and received the cup of tea with her usual dignity. Professor Ohgami, for her part, knelt calmly with her usual expression of faint amusement.

Himeko just didn't understand how they could take everything so easily, but kept her mouth shut because she was embarrassed to show her immaturity in front of the others. Inside, though, she was completely confused and more than a little scared. The Solar and Lunar Priestesses were two sides of the same coin, inextricably entwined with one another, and yet only Chikane had awakened. Himeko hadn't heard the voice of Ame no Murakumo; the mark of the sun hadn't even appeared on her body. Whatever her expectations were of this cycle, there was no place in them for her to imagine herself _not_ being the Solar Priestess.

Chikane sipped her tea.

"As I see it," Reverend Ohgami said, "we have multiple problems, all stemming from the absence of the Solar Priestess. You have awakened as Lunar Priestess, Miss Asamiya--"

"You'd better just call her Tsukuyo," his sister interjected, "or else things will get quite confusing."

"With your permission?" he asked the girl.

"Of course," Chikane replied, while Himeko nodded mutely.

"Very well. Tsukuyo, I'm certain that you realize that you are not fully awakened to the powers of the Lunar Priestess?"

"Quite; I am a Sword Priestess with no sword."

"Then you are aware that the rite to unseal your powers is a necessary precursor to summoning Ame no Murakumo. This cannot happen without both priestesses."

"Um..." Himeko interjected, "I don't mean to be rude, but I don't remember performing that rite last time."

"We didn't have to," Chikane explained. "I was the Eighth Neck as well, remember? That was more than enough power to forcibly break the seal on our powers as priestesses without performing the proper rite."

"Then that was why my sword appeared to me right before you had that awful fight with Souma and stole Take no Yamikazuchi from him?"

"That's right. That was the moment in which I truly embraced my nature as Orochi, which in turn shattered the restraints on us both as miko."

"If I may be so bold," Professor Ohgami interjected. "As I understand the legends, the Necks of Orochi are those whose anger and despair have driven them to wish the destruction of the world. Tsukuyo, at this point we're putting our hopes with you, and regardless of how things turned out, you felt that hatred and despair in your last life. What's changed?"

"Hey!" Himeko said. "Isn't that a little too much? Chikane is Chikane, regardless of what she's been through, and--"

Chikane's hand covered hers, stilling the flood of protests.

"It...is a fair question, Himeko." She met Professor Ohgami's gaze directly. "I can only say that I made a great many mistaken assumptions in the past, which caused needless suffering both for myself and those around me. I can assure you, however, that I have learned from those mistakes and that I have found...a reason not to despair." Though her expression did not change, she gave Himeko's hand a quick squeeze.

Himeko looked from her to the professor and back, wondering if the older woman would comment. She knew that Himeko and Chikane were lovers, after all, and though she hadn't believed then their explanation that it was a continuation of their past-life relationship she now knew that story was true, and therefore would have a good idea what Chikane was talking about.

"I see," was all she said, though not even with a glance at Himeko to indicate what she meant. That was good, because Himeko really, really didn't want Marika's father to know. She had a fairly strong impression that the priest would not be amused by their relationship the way the women in his family had been. "Thank you for the explanation."

"Next there is the ritual to summon Ame no Murakumo," Reverend Ohgami went on. "One priestess sheds the blood of the other, and the one whose blood was shed calls for the god. It may be that this can be done with only you, Tsukuyo, but I cannot be sure."

"Neither am I. We...performed that one together, the last time."

Himeko felt a sting at her heart. That particular memory was one of the worst ones, from the things Chikane had done to her but even more so because of the pain Chikane had been suffering that made her do them. She ached to pull her beloved into her arms, to hold her close and stroke her hair and tell her that everything was all right, just as she did every time she thought of that horrible night.

"This is quite the problem," Professor Ohgami said. "Without the Solar Priestess, you cannot effectively fight the Orochi. Moreover, neither can she, wherever she is."

"That's not all," Himeko said, mainly because she knew Chikane wouldn't. "The final ritual, the one that restores the world, absolutely demands there be both of us. Or...I guess, Chikane and...whomever is the Solar Priestess now?"

Tears stung at her eyes and there was a little catch in her voice at the end.

"Himeko..." Chikane turned worried eyes on her.

"I'm sorry," she sniffled. "It's only...I just realized that if there's another Solar Priestess, then it'll be you and she reborn again next time. I won't be with you."

Chikane sighed.

"And to think, last time I tried so hard to make that happen, even at the cost of my own soul."

"Perhaps you succeeded," Professor Ohgami said. "I'm of course not sure of how these things work, but if you put that much effort into changing fate, isn't it possible that you did so? Your primary goal was, if I recall correctly, to free Hikari from the painful destiny of being the Solar Priestess. All the rest was largely incidental. So maybe you accomplished that goal?"

Chikane shook her head forcefully.

"I can't--I won't believe that!" Himeko, though, could tell that she had doubts, and she also knew that the notion that Chikane was somehow responsible for this present situation would cut her like a lash. _I have to watch for that,_ she resolved. _I can't let her start blaming herself for things that aren't her fault._

She chose to speak up, then, to try to turn the conversation onto slightly safer ground.

"Reverend Ohgami, is there anything we can do to try and find the Solar Priestess?"

He rubbed his chin.

"I am not certain, but I believe that it may be possible. The tie between the two priestesses is very strong, as if they were two sides of the same coin."

"Two halves of the same shell," Chikane murmured.

"I believe it may be possible to use that relationship to draw you closer to the Solar Priestess, Tsukuyo. A mystical bond this profound ought to give a firm foothold for this kind of attempt. I will consult my library at once to see if there is anything that can be done."

"Thank you, Reverend," Chikane said, her mask of composure back in place.

"Think nothing of it. It is my duty as a priest and a member of the Ohgami family to aid the priestesses of the Godless Month in any way that I can. I confess that I have feared my role, if any, would be small and my dedication needless since I've come to know you both, so I readily embrace this task."

"Have to keep the family end up," the professor agreed. "I'll help you look. I may not be much in the way of mystical knowledge, but library use I know."

Her younger brother chuckled.

"You're too modest, Minako; as a teenager you knew more about our family heritage than I did."

"Until I decided there wasn't much point in studying gods that don't exist and destinies that wouldn't happen, you mean?" She smiled wryly. "That bit of arrogance certainly came back around to bite me, didn't it--which, I may add, is the only reason why I'm not smacking you upside the head for reminding me that it's been a quarter-century since I was a teenager."

Her comment made everyone laugh, which was quite a relief. And it was, of course, just then when Marika clomped up the veranda and into the room through the sliding door only to find them all smiles and levity.

"Well, I'm glad to see you're all having fun. Seriously, though, Hikari, you call me up all scared and talking like it's the end of the world, literally, and I find you in here laughing and having a grand old time! If you were going to have a party, you could have at least told me so I could pick up a cake."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_NOTES: Apparently "Reverend" is actually the correct way to address a Shinto priest in English. Thanks to happychameleon for helping me look that up._

_Some readers, particularly those who have only seen the anime, might have wondered what I was smoking when Chikane had the thought that "she'd been trained in how to fulfill her role." Unlike the anime Chikane, the manga Chikane had been taught by her family that she was not only going to be Lunar Priestess but the Eighth Neck besides, and had in fact been operating as Priestess of the Church of Orochi even before the Godless Month began (see vol. 2 for details). So even before she regained her past-life memories, this Chikane was already prepared for what happened next...except that the fact that she was in love with Himeko pretty well trashed her grandfather's Evil Scheme(tm). I kind of like the fact that Chikane gets to snicker in her granddad's face about that, right before she blows up the world._


	5. Reflections of a Life Gone By

Chikane and Reverend Ohgami quickly brought Marika up to speed with what was happening.

"Geez, this is so completely unfair," she declared. "Here you are, ready and willing to revive Ame no Murakumo and save the world, and someone goes and swipes the Solar Priestess job from Hikari."

Four pairs of surprised eyes greeted her summary of events.

"Um, what did I say?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Reverend Ohgami mused.

"Do you think it's possible?" Chikane asked excitedly.

"Again, completely lost here," interjected Marika.

"We had been thinking," her father said, "of the problem in terms of finding the Solar Priestess, wherever she may be. But as you have alluded to, perhaps that is _not_ what is happening. It seems, after all, quite odd that Hikari would possess the memories of a previous life as Solar Priestess but not the role itself."

"Ahh," Professor Ohgami chimed in. "So you suspect that Hikari still is the Solar Priestess and that someone--probably one of the Orochi--is deliberately preventing her from assuming the part? That in this way the role has been 'swiped' from her like Marika said?"

"It makes sense," Chikane said eagerly. "Without the Solar Priestess, the power of Orochi cannot be defeated. They would surely seek out a way to stop her."

"Then why don't I even have the mark?" Himeko asked. "That appears at the beginning of the day, not when we awaken as priestesses. Wouldn't I have seen it when I got dressed?"

"You might not," Chikane mused, "if you were asleep when it happened."

Himeko thought it over, then surprised herself by spotting a flaw in the logic.

"But if they knew who I was, and they wanted to seal away my status as the Solar Priestess, then why wouldn't they just kill me instead? That would be more effective for the Orochi, and I'd think it would be a lot easier."

She looked from one face to another, finishing with Chikane. Her twin had a serious expression and a slight frown.

"What you say makes sense, Himeko," she said. "I have to admit, I wish it didn't."

"Why?"

"Because it would mean that there wasn't someone else out there, some Solar Priestess other than you."

"Oh!"

"Let's not take that off the table just yet," interjected Professor Ohgami. "After all, who says that these Orochi necessarily function in sane and rational ways--or that they don't have some other clever scheme afoot that we don't know about?"

Both sisters had turned back to her, slightly embarrassed that they'd just missed breaking into a romantic moment in front of other people.

"In any case, we have the beginnings of a plan of action," the professor continued. "Takeshi and I are going to hit the books. In the meantime, the two of you need to prepare yourselves for whatever the Orochi might do next, particularly you, Tsukuyo."

"If what happened at school is any example of what's coming, they need to find a really deep hole and hide in it!" Marika said. "The story said six people were killed and over thirty injured!"

Himeko gasped.

"What story?" asked Reverend Ohgami.

"I checked it out on my cell's 'net browser on the way over," she explained. "I can still barely wrap my head around the idea of Reiko Himemiya being a crazed magical killer. I guess it really is the quiet ones who snap."

"I agree with Marika," said Chikane. "We need to find out some way to fight back, and until we do we can't go around making ourselves into targets."

"But Chikane, we can't do that! Think of everyone!"

"Himeko?"

"If...if Reiko is an Orochi, then they know all about us, not just as priestesses but as people. Our names, where we live, what classes we take, the names of our friends, all of it!"

"That's what makes things so dangerous for us," Chikane agreed. "Until we find the Solar Priestess..."

"No! That's not what I'm talking about! We have to go back _because_ Reiko knows all that."

"Himeko, you're not making any sense." Chikane glanced to the Ohgamis, to see if they had any ideas, but they appeared to be equally confused.

Himeko sighed. She supposed she wasn't being very clear, at that.

"What's going to happen if Reiko or another Orochi attacks the college looking for us and we're not there? What'll they do? Six people were killed this time, so how many would it be next time? Ten? Twenty? A hundred? Don't you see, we have to be there to protect people, to keep them from being hurt or worse for our sakes!"

Chikane looked at her for a long moment, then turned to Reverend Ohgami.

"Would you please excuse us for a moment?" she asked, then rose to her feet, drawing Himeko up by the hand that she'd never gotten around to releasing.

"Of course."

Chikane took Himeko to the inner door, slid the screen open, then closed it again when they were out in the hall. She then led Himeko a short way down the corridor so that their voices would not be instantly audible through the wood-and-paper _shoji _screens. She had that peculiar tightness in her face that Himeko knew meant Chikane was angry at her. Chikane always had trouble with that emotion because she still felt all kinds of silly misplaced guilt over what she'd put Himeko through in their past lives. Himeko wished she would stop that, but when her Chikane was angry at her wasn't the easiest time to tell her that she didn't need to be guilty and should just come out and yell--Himeko wasn't _that_ brave!

She reached out and set her hands on Himeko's shoulders.

"Himeko, I know you were just trying to protect people's lives, but that isn't going to be possible. The Orochi are much more powerful than I--than we are, and there are eight of them. We don't have a Souma Ohgami among their number willing to turn to our side and hold the line until we can summon Ame no Murakumo. We don't even have both priestesses. There's no way we can protect everyone, Himeko. We can barely even protect ourselves, and that isn't certain."

"But people were killed! You can't think that's all right."

Chikane sighed.

"Himeko...Reiko didn't kill those people. I'm the one responsible for their deaths."

_Wh-what is she talking about? She can't mean that!_

"I told you that I escaped her by putting up barriers, didn't I? Trapping Reiko inside them so that I could run away? Well, it wasn't just Reiko that was trapped. That building was in use. There were students coming and going from class, there were professors and teaching assistants, and there were probably general staff members. I sealed them, helpless, inside an enclosed area with an incarnate force of destruction. More than likely they were killed as collateral damage when Reiko broke open those barriers; if she had wanted to lash out and kill more there would certainly have been more casualties."

"Chikane, that's not the same thing. You couldn't have thought about that when you were doing it."

She shook her head.

"No, I didn't. But if I had I would have done it anyway."

"What?" Himeko gasped.

"Himeko...you're talking about protecting people's lives, but those lives are lost anyway. There are only two possible outcomes for all of this. Either Yamata no Orochi will win and destruction will encompass the earth forever, or we will win, we and Ame no Murakumo. If that happens, time itself will be unwound and recreated, and the souls of those killed will be restored to life at the start of this morning--probably _better_ lives since the malice that gave rise to Orochi will have been temporarily suppressed. But here and now, in this time, those people will die. It's inescapable."

Himeko gasped again; Chikane's words were like a slap across her face.

"Chikane, I...I can't believe you're saying these things! You can't be saying that people's lives don't matter!"

Chikane sighed again and let her hands drop.

"Oh, Himeko," she said, shaking her head sadly. "Of course I'm saying that. Don't you remember that in our previous lives, I was the final Orochi? That in the last cycle I destroyed the world with my own will in order to bring things to the endgame? Every single person then alive--six _billion_ people, including my own family, the Ohgamis, dear loyal Otoha, your best friend Makoto, and even Souma? I did that fully expecting you to kill me and revive the world--as the world _was_ revived--but I did it nonetheless, because it was a necessary step towards Orochi's defeat."

"But...but..." Himeko whimpered. Chikane's voice was so calm, even gentle as it said such horrible things; that was the worst of it. It shouldn't be possible to say that kind of thing without some overwhelming emotion, but not this way, not _lovingly_. Himeko found herself tearing up as her mind reached for the only explanation that made sense to her. "But you were Orochi then, and you were suffering from guilt and despair because I couldn't make my feelings clear. So that's...that's why..."

Chikane suddenly embraced her, pulling her lover against her, cradling Himeko's head against her shoulder and gently stroking her hair like she would to comfort a child.

"I wish that were true, but it isn't. My foolishness in mistrusting you, in not believing you could love me in the way I love you was the reason I hurt you, and why my soul fell to become one of the Orochi, but as for the people of the world..." She sighed again. "No, that was done with clear eyes, unclouded by doubts. It is inevitable, Himeko. Orochi must be unleashed for Orochi to be defeated and sealed. So long as the wills of the Necks contain the power of the serpent god, then the final battle cannot be fought."

She sighed yet again, and continued to tenderly cradle Himeko against her.

"I believe that in the past, before I lost my way, we would summon Ame no Murakumo as soon as we awoke as priestesses. One by one we would throw down the Necks who sought to wield the power of destruction, and when the last was defeated, Yamata no Orochi itself would be released. We would strike it down as well, but such forces could not be unleashed without grave destruction. Therefore we would revive the world and remake time itself to erase what had happened."

"But, Chikane..."

"I know it hurts, Himeko, but we cannot protect anyone by guarding their lives in this world. The only way we can save them is to make certain that we defeat the Orochi and give the people their new world. What happens to them here, only we and the gods will remember."

"I can't do it," she sniffled. "I can't just watch people die. I can't say to the Ohgamis that I would protect my life at their own expense. Or Marika. And what about Mama and Papa? You couldn't really let them die if you could stop it, could you?"

Chikane cradled her gently.

"Yes, Himeko, I could. There's only one person for whose sake I would do something so shortsighted and foolhardy."

"Chikane..."

The Lunar Priestess twined a stray lock of Himeko's hair around her index finger.

"You really couldn't, though, could you? Even knowing what is to come, you couldn't just step aside and let events take their course without trying your hardest to stop them."

Himeko shook her head. She felt embarrassed and upset, almost ashamed; Chikane's manner was almost that of a mother acquainting her child with a difficult truth instead of being the way sisters or lovers would discuss things. Himeko hated when she felt this way; a child was a burden on the parent--albeit one borne with love--because it wasn't capable of bearing its own weight and Himeko hated, hated, hated being a burden of any kind on Chikane.

But she couldn't change her feelings, either, and one of the most important promises they'd made to one another was that they wouldn't hide what they thought or felt any more.

"No, I couldn't. I see what you're saying, Chikane, I really do, but it's wrong to just stand by and let others get hurt in our place. It's probably smart, but it isn't right."

She looked up at Chikane and found to her surprise that her beloved's eyes were wet.

"You shame me, Himeko, you truly do," she said, and gently brushed the back of her hand against Himeko's cheek. The feathery touch made Himeko shiver all the way down to her toes.

"Chikane..."

"It's all right, my love. We'll do what we can for everyone."

Himeko felt her heart leap.

"You mean that you agree with me?"

"No, but I don't care enough about the distinction to make you unhappy over it."

"Oh..." Himeko wasn't quite sure how she felt about that. It sounded a little bit like emotional blackmail, with her as the blackmailer. Honesty between lovers wasn't supposed to work that way. "Then you're doing this for my sake?"

Chikane seemed to take great care in choosing her words, clearly aware of the direction of Himeko's thoughts.

"Not for your sake, exactly. It's more that you reminded me of what the right thing to do would be." She smiled gently and kissed Himeko softly on the forehead, her lips like the brush of a bird's wing against Himeko's skin. "The moon shines while wrapped in darkness, so it is not unnatural that it may sometimes lose sight of the light."

Himeko let out a deep sigh.

"I'm glad. I didn't want to think I was bullying you into something."

Her lover chuckled.

"Who would ever believe you capable of being a bully?"

"Not with shouting or fists, but there are other kinds of bullying. And...you do let me have my way an awful lot of the time."

"So do gods, so at least I'm in good company."

"Chikane!" she protested, but her twin just laughed.

"I did think of a practical reason to do as you act, by the way."

"Oh?"

"Right now, our best hope is that the Ohgamis discover something in their archive research that lets us find out what happened to the role of Solar Priestess. If we stay here, sooner or later the Orochi will find us. Laying aside the merely mystical connection between the shrine and the priestesses, Marika is your best friend. That makes this a logical place to hunt for you. In a battle here, the Orochi might destroy the shrine archives. It's a dangerous game to play, using ourselves as bait, but there is something to be gained by it."

"I'm glad," Himeko said, smiling brightly.

"Let's go tell the others, then."

-X X X-

The next day was bright and sunny, a crisp October day where the air had just a hint of winter's bite to it but not enough to require a coat. It was hard to believe that something as awful as the Orochi was abroad on a day like this one, Himeko thought. The path she and Marika followed ran along the edge of the hill and she could see the Ototachibana students scurrying up and down the stairs. The girls' brown skirts and double-breasted jackets at this distance reminded her of fallen leaves, crisped and sere, being blown on the autumn wind. She paused and framed the shot, wishing she'd brought her camera.

"Huh? What'cha doing?" Marika asked, so Himeko told her.

"I could call it '_Leaves in the Wind of Learning_,' or something like that."

"It might be good. Still, give me the summer unis any day. Bright red and white is way more my style than brown, and the tights make my legs look good."

"They used to wear them year-round; you'd have liked that."

"They did? How do you--ohhh, the past-life memories thing. You know, it was weird enough when that was all kind of a romantic story, but now that I know it's the plain truth..." She shook her head. "Of course, it means that Dad gets the last laugh on Aunt Minako. It's hard to be an atheist when you're helping resurrected shrine maidens summon a god to fight another god!"

Himeko giggled.

"She's really taking it well, though."

Marika shrugged.

"The scientific method really is her deity of choice. She'd probably say that a good scientist has no business getting emotionally attached to a particular theory but should just follow where the evidence leads."

"That does sound like something Professor Ohgami would say."

"Well, I ought to know her by now; she moved back in with us when my mother died. Since I was only three, she pretty much was all the mother I've had."

"You're lucky she was there. You never know what you'll be getting when you're in someone else's care."

"Yeah," Marika said, then stopped. "Wait a sec--what do you know about it? Your mom and dad are still alive!"

Himeko smiled sadly.

"I know. I say a prayer of thanks for that every night."

"Then how--oh, not again," Marika sighed, realizing that her experience was Himeko Kurusugawa's, not Hikari Asamiya's. "Was it terribly awful?" her friend asked, more gently.

"My parents died when I was five. I was given to the care of relatives, but they...weren't suited to raise a child. So the government put me into foster care; my guardians weren't bad people but we weren't close, either."

"Geez, Hikari, I'm sorry to dredge up painful memories."

Himeko quickly shook her head.

"Mm-mm. It's okay. You're my best friend; I can trust you with stuff like this. And besides, I have a wonderful family now, with a mother and father who love men and I've gotten to be with Chikane right from the day I was born! So I don't have any regrets!"

"You're really something else, you know that?"

"Eh?"

Marika grinned.

"Never mind. Hey, just out of curiosity, how long ago was it, anyway? Your past life, I mean."

"I'm not really sure."

"Hikari, that didn't even make sense."

"I know," she groaned. "I didn't get it either. Every time Chikane tries to explain it, I get a headache."

"Give it your best shot."

"Well, it's because of what happens to _time_, she says. It isn't just that Orochi gets defeated and the world gets put back where it was, but it's a _different_ world, where things happened that didn't happen or things didn't happen that did."

"Like in a parallel universe?" asked Marika, who was a sci-fi fan.

"Yes! Maybe...I don't know. It's like...the Mahoroba we're living in now is really similar to the Mahoroba from my last life, but they might be five years or five hundred years apart." Himeko shook her head as if to loosen the fuzzies that seemed to have taken over. "I really, really don't understand how it works. You should ask Chikane."

"It would probably give me a headache, too."

They were nearing the dorm, now; in a minute Marika would turn left towards the stairs to catch the bus back to the shrine.

"Say, Hikari...do you want to do something tonight? I mean, you and Tsukuyo kind of missed your entire birthday celebration thanks to those idiot Orochi."

"I'd like to, but...we were going to spend it together. We never got to exchange gifts and we were so tired after we got back home yesterday night that we just went straight to sleep, and then it was off to class again this morning..."

Marika laughed.

"Hey, it's okay. One excuse was enough."

"No, really, we did have plans."

She reached up and ruffled Himeko's hair.

"I know. I'm just saying that being with your girlfriend is good enough reason. I'm so jealous of you, though."

"But you don't even like girls that way, Marika."

Marika groaned.

"Oh, geez, I just meant that--" She looked up into Himeko's grin. "Argh, you got me that time. I usually forget that you _have_ a sense of humor."

"Am I really that bad?"

"No, but Tall, Dark, and Princessy is."

"Actually, you'd be surprised. Chikane really has a very sly sense of humor."

"You're right. I would be surprised."

Both girls dissolved into giggles.

"Hey, would you like to come up for a while?"

"Won't I be in the way?"

"No, Chikane has that late world history class on Tuesdays so she won't be back yet."

"All right, then. It'll be more fun to hang out with you," Marika said brightly.

Himeko led the way up the stairs to her dorm room, past other students who milled around, going in and out of their rooms on their own business.

"Now," Marika said as Himeko put her key in the lock, "you're sure this will be okay, right? After all, I'm about to step into the"--she stood up on tiptoe so she could whisper the rest of it in Himeko's ear--"love nest of two notorious perverts!"

Himeko flushed.

"Geez, Marika, if you're going to be _that_ way about it, why do you even hang out with me?"

"Whoa! I'm sorry; I was just giving you a hard time about it like always. I didn't mean anything bad by it, honestly. It's fun to tease you, but I've honestly thought the whole forbidden love thing was kind of sweet. I don't know what that says about me," she added with an attempt at a grin, "but I really am glad you have someone who loves you that much. When I'm not jealous as heck, that is."

Himeko let out her breath and her anger together.

"No, I'm sorry too," she said. "I know the difference between your teasing and real feelings. I'm...just worried, what with all that's happened. But I'm really lucky to have a friend like you, who's on my side."

"Um, so we're okay, then?"

"Of course!"

She turned the key in the lock and opened the door. Himeko gasped as she saw the long, lean form seated in Chikane's desk chair, a pale woman in her mid-twenties with short, silvery-blue hair.

"Welcome home, Solar Priestess."


	6. You, For Whom I Shine

"No," the woman instantly corrected herself, "no, you're not the Solar Priestess. I can sense nothing but common humanity from you." She unwound herself from the chair, her blue jean-clad legs moving with an effortless, athletic grace. The arms revealed by her short-sleeved T-shirt were marked by crisscrossing thin white lines, scars that almost seemed delicate. "Another mistake by the First Neck, it seems. She was so sure that you would be the one."

"Orochi!" Himeko gasped.

A darkness glittered in the woman's sky-blue eyes, like chips of black sapphire.

"So your sister talks to you. That's good. Families should be close. And..." She reached into her jeans pocket and took out a short cylinder of carved ivory capped with brass. A flick of her thumb revealed that it was a switchblade knife, the five-inch blade that sprang from the end polished to a high gloss. "...and least this way my trip wasn't wasted."

Himeko stared at the knife, trembling. Her heart pounded like a trip-hammer, and she seemed frozen like a bird caught in a snake's gaze. She'd spoken bravely the day before about facing danger, about not wanting anyone else to be hurt in her place, but idealistic dreams didn't protect her from fear when she was face-to-face with an Orochi who knew who she was, who wanted her life.

"Hikari, _run!_" Marika cried, pulling on her arm. The petite girl yanked her hard enough that her foot slipped, and while she caught her balance, the spell broke. The fear was no longer a cold paralysis but a hot spear digging into her, screaming _runfleeescape_.

A dark aura seemed to envelop the Orochi, as if she was wrapped in a veil of black flames.

"Yes, do run," she said. "Let me have some fun with this."

The girls bolted, pounding down the corridor and crashing through the door to the stairs. _If only I could do something!_ Himeko thought. She couldn't think of anything, though; all she could do was run and even that not all that well.

There was a growl behind them as they made the turn at the final landing before the ground floor, and Himeko could not resist turning her head to see. A great, dark shape hurtled down the stairs they'd just descended and crashed into the wall, blasting gouges out of the plaster and sending cracks radiating out in all directions. Himeko let out a little yelp and the shape turned towards her.

It looked like a giant panther, she realized, only every part of it but the eyes--skin, fur, tongue, claws, teeth, everything--seemed to be made from inky darkness, as if shadows had been given tangible form and pooled together in a coherent mass. Its eyes were blank ovals of glimmering violet, and wisps as if of amethyst flame seemed to flicker off its body into the air.

Marika screamed while little whimpering noises came involuntarily from deep in Himeko's throat. She didn't know if that made her less or more scared than her friend.

"C-come on!" she babbled, plucking at Marika's sleeve while fighting to tear her eyes away from the monster. Was this what Chikane had meant by the Shadow of an Orochi god? _What can I do to fight _that_?_

The panther flexed its claws, the casual movement of its paw tearing gouges into the tile. The movement spurred the girls; they scampered down the stairs and out through the door.

That was when Himeko realized that there _was_ something she could do to fight the Orochi, or at least to help thwart it. She turned and shoved Marika as hard as she could with both hands. The tiny girl fell stumbling away to land on the grassy verge beyond the walk.

"Hikari, what are you--" Marika cried, but Himeko had already turned to run the other way, back towards the path along which they'd approached the dorm. In the next instant, a black pool seemed to ooze out from beneath the closed door, then rose up into the shape of the giant cat and loped after Himeko.

_Yes! At least Marika is safe!_ the blonde exulted momentarily, before her own situation drove out that happiness. She glanced over her shoulder at the shadowy cat and her stomach flip-flopped. _Chikane, what am I supposed to do?_

-X X X-

Marika pounded her fist on the grass. _Damn it, damn it, damn it, Hikari, why did you _do_ that?_ But she knew why, well enough. Hikari was that kind of person. If the two girls were together, then that woman was as likely as not to destroy Marika just for being there, but if they separated there was no question which one she'd follow.

_I can't just lay here_, Marika thought. _I have to do something._ Her legs were trembling so badly she could barely move them, though. The woman--the Orochi--had been unlike anything she'd imagined. She was certain that they weren't alive now because of anything they'd done, because of running or dodging, but because the Orochi liked to play with her prey instead of killing it outright. She was the daughter of the Ohgami Shrine priest, and she could still scarcely believe in the reality of it.

_Hikari and Tsukuyo _fought _those things? Not once, but over and over through multiple lifetimes? _she marveled. Marika couldn't imagine it; she'd go mad in their place. And Hikari? Gentle, sunny Hikari as a shrine maiden of the God of Swords? The idea was almost inconceivable for her.

It did, though, make her realize what she could do. If there was anyone who she could imagine fighting that thing it was Tsukuyo. The Lunar Priestess would move heaven and earth to protect Hikari. Marika had to find her.

_Hikari said that...she had a late world history class,_ she remembered. _That would have been in the history/lit building, but because of yesterday's damage..._It came to her a moment later; history was temporarily sharing facilities with engineering. She quickly calculated the most likely route for Tsukuyo to follow, and started to get to her feet. The act of deciding to do something had, if not eased her fear, at least calmed her enough to regain some self-control, and though she was a little wobbly at first she began to regain her equilibrium as she started to jog, then run, hoping to meet Tsukuyo halfway.

-X X X-

More than one head turned as Chikane strolled back to the dorm, just as they had during class. It had been over six months since she'd last worn her only pair of blue jeans, and that had been because she'd accompanied Himeko on a photography hike. She couldn't remember the last time she hadn't worn a skirt when not required to by circumstance.

Then again, to her mind, this _was_ 'required by circumstance.' If an Orochi appeared, she wanted the mobility offered by pants. It was the same reason her _tanto_ dagger was in her bag. She'd even gone so far as to pick up her bow before her late lecture; it was slung over her back in its case and was the cause of at least as many stares as the jeans. She'd fobbed off her professor's questions with some excuse about late practice, but she still felt the eyes, the stares, the questioning glances. It narrowed the distance she carefully maintained between herself and the rest of the world.

It was Himeko who'd done this, Himeko whose presence demanded that the real Chikane come to the forefront. It reminded her of how just two days ago she'd wished that she could openly be a couple with her lover, actually stood there and _yearned_ for the chance to openly expose her innermost self to strangers. Himeko was her sun, her light that scattered all her lies, her fears, her self-doubts, Himeko's relentless--there was no other word for it--love for the true Chikane giving her the strength to let that Chikane out, bit by bit.

She still preferred their time together within the Lunar Shrine. Just herself and Himeko, with no one else to share herself with.

"Tsukuyo!"

Chikane's gaze flicked ahead towards the voice. It was Marika, whom she simultaneously hated for every minute the girl occupied Himeko's time and cherished for being a trusted friend that helped make Himeko happy. They'd had relatively few interactions themselves on a personal level.

Marika was running, almost panting for breath, though, and her face, Chikane saw, was wreathed in pure panic.

"What's wrong?" she asked at once. "Is Himeko all right?"

Marika bent over, gasping for breath, her hands on her knees to support herself.

"It's an Orochi," she wheezed out. "She chased Hikari...from the dorm down...the hill path."

Chikane was in motion at once, leaving the path and cutting across the campus grounds at a dead run. She didn't understand why the Orochi would be after Himeko, unless Reiko just wanted to hurt Chikane, to make her suffer in a way that nothing else would, but if the Orochi had been Reiko, Marika would have said so.

A different Neck, then, one with no personal stake in the outcome. _So why go after Himeko?_

Ruthlessly, she shoved the questions aside. They didn't matter now, anyway. All that mattered was getting to Himeko as soon as possible, and the desperate hope that the Orochi needed her victim alive for some reason.

-X X X-

Himeko squealed in pain as the paw struck her side and sent her flying, then grunted as she crashed into the bank. The shadow panther did not follow up its attack, though, but crouched ready to spring as the blue-haired woman came up next to it. She stroked its head gently, affectionately as she looked at Himeko.

"I really wish that I didn't have to do this," she said conversationally. No, that wasn't right, thought Himeko; there seemed to be genuine regret in the voice. "I'd rather not hurt another woman. We suffer too much in this damned world as it is. But your sister is the Lunar Priestess, and we can't pass up this opportunity. Only with the death of the priestesses can we be assured of Orochi's final triumph."

Whimpering, Himeko inched backwards up the bank, her feet digging into the grassy soil, loose rocks and gravel scratching against her back. She knew she needed to do something, but she was too scared to think.

"The First Neck says that your sister cares for you more than anyone, so even if you didn't turn out to be the Solar Priestess, with you in our hands we'll still have a lever to use against her."

_So that's why I'm still alive_, Himeko thought. She'd been batted around and scratched up a bit like a terrified mouse, but the Orochi had clearly been holding back. Now she understood. She couldn't let the Orochi hurt Chikane through her, but she couldn't think of anything she could do to stop the woman.

The Orochi urged the great cat forward; it padded towards Himeko with slow, relentless steps.

Suddenly, three arrows zipped down and buried themselves in the cat's side, the points of impact each shining with a pale, almost silvery light that dispelled the shadow's cohesion. The panther became more and more translucent, until Himeko could see the glowing arrowheads through it, then faded even further to become little more than a pale gray smudge, until it was gone entirely and the arrows clattered to the ground.

"Chikane!" Himeko cried jubilantly.

The Lunar Priestess snapped off another shot at the Orochi herself, but the blue-haired woman sidestepped, then hurled her knife up the bank towards Chikane. Chikane dove aside, a good move as it turned out as an explosion of black fire burst from the ground where the knife struck. The Orochi produced another blade while Chikane skidded down the bank to the path, putting herself between the Orochi and Himeko. Chikane dropped her bow and drew her _tanto._ The two women made an eerie mirror to one another, the grim fury in both faces making Himeko shiver.

-X X X-

It had been an unrewarding day, Takeshi Ohgami thought as he slowly read down yet another scroll. The shrine records were very specific as to rituals, but all too often retreated into the generalizations of legend when dealing with the nature of the Orochi and their battles with the priestesses. His past conversations with the Asamiya sisters had given him a good idea as to why: every time the battle was won, the world itself was remade, time unwound so that from the perspective of those who lived on the battle had never occurred. History could not record that which humans had not experienced; the memories of the gods were given voice only in myth. Even the priestesses themselves did not customarily retain the knowledge of their part, requiring the existence of the Ohgami family.

Tsukuyo had indicated, obliquely, that it had been largely Hikari's doing that the present circumstances were so different from the cycles in the legend. Was this the reason why she was not, apparently, the Solar Priestess? Had she stepped out of her own role in the course of, again apparently, saving Tsukuyo from the despair that had made her Orochi?

If the shrine's archive contained answers to those questions, they were stubbornly refusing to reveal themselves. Neither he nor his sister had been able to discover anything beyond what they'd already known.

Yet perhaps that was the problem, he thought. What he'd been taught by his father had been that the coming of the Orochi, the battle of the priestesses, and the triumph of Ame no Murakumo were all part of an eternal cycle compelled by destiny. This promoted rigid, patterned thinking. Perhaps his problem was not a lack of knowledge but an inability to accurately interpret the knowledge he had. "Eternal" and "destined" did not, after all, mean "immutable," as had been proved.

It was in this spirit that he renewed his research, and when he happened to read (or more accurately reread, as it was the fourth time he'd come across some variation of it that day) a particular passage, it sparked his imagination.

"Minako."

"Yes?" she said sharply. Ever since she was a little girl she'd always hated being distracted while she was reading.

"I think I've found something. Listen to this."

He read it out to her.

"Yes, and...?"

Takeshi explained, then, what his conclusions were and a smile slowly spread across her face.

"Well, now," Minako mused. "Isn't that an interesting development?"

-X X X-

The knife blades rang off of one another as Chikane and the Orochi lunged. The switchblade and tanto were more than just steel; they were extensions of their power as Sixth Neck and Lunar Priestess and the silver and violet sparks they struck off one another were only the slightest hint of the forces meeting.

This Orochi, Chikane realized, wasn't like Reiko, dangerous only because her sword was a manifestation of Take no Sukunazuchi. This one knew how to fight. She was good at it, entirely apart from her supernatural force. Indeed, it was only her own enhanced abilities she was using; it was the panther-construct Chikane had recognized as the Shadow of Izuhara no Tamazuchi. Chikane was lucky that she'd had the chance to attack and dispel it without warning, given how evenly matched they now seemed to be.

The woman, she could tell, was doing the same thing she was, taking her opponent's measure during the initial clashes between them, measuring not only skill but determination and resolve during these exchanges of cut and parry. Of course, determination was inherent in an Orochi's nature; they wouldn't be Orochi if there wasn't something powerful driving them, a core of pain and rage and despair regardless of how lighthearted or even comical their personalities might have seemed on the outside.

"Why?" the Orochi asked as Chikane's tanto sliced a cut in the fabric of her T-shirt while missing the flesh beneath. "Why are you doing this?"

Chikane struck aside the two quick ripostes. The heat in her back was like a brand eating into her skin; she was pushing the limits of her mostly-sealed power in keeping up with the Orochi.

"Why are you fighting us? I can feel it from you. The same anger as in us, the same disgust with the world."

_She's not taunting,_ Chikane realized. _She genuinely wants to know._

Chikane lashed out again, driving her back.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said. She certainly wasn't about to have a heart-to-heart about her feelings for Himeko in the middle of a knife fight! "Even when I let my anger reign, I tried to fix what was wrong with my own hands, not tried to just destroy everything."

"Do you think I didn't try?" the woman shouted. "I looked and I looked for that bastard, but his family had transferred away while I was in the hospital and I never found them! I found others, though, so many like him. Boys who think paying for a date means a right to a girl's body. Men who believe their desire gives them the right to do whatever they want." She slashed at Chikane wildly, her strokes carrying greater force, channeling more of the darkness but ironically easier to evade. "So I studied. I planned. I watched. I trained. At first, I thought that I was doing some good, _helping_ in my small way. But it never ends! There are always more of them, more filth like a festering plague, bubbling up out of this corrupt world's heart!"

As she spoke, it began to dawn on Chikane what the Orochi was talking about, how--and why--she'd gained her skill, her causal ease with a blade, and as it did the hilt of the tanto almost seemed to crawl beneath the Lunar Priestess's fingers. She'd owned another such weapon once, when she was Chikane Himemiya. As had suited the heiress of Mahoroba's founding clan, it had been a masterwork blade, even its hilt and sheath a work of art in fantastically colored patterns inlaid in the wood. She remembered the feel of that hilt under her rapidly numbing fingers, how she'd flung it away, unable to bear touching it because of the blood she'd shed not with the blade but with the sheath.

Himeko's blood.

She stared at the enraged face of the Orochi, watched as a crackling aura of shadows began to swell up around the woman, and the only coherent thought in Chikane's mind was a paraphrase of a Western quotation she'd once read.

_There, but for the grace of God, go thee_.

"Himeko..." passed from her lips, the dagger dropped from her hand, and it was actually fortunate that she sagged to her knees on the path because if she hadn't the Orochi's knife would have torn out her throat, instead of passing over her head.

The Orochi stared at her in confusion. Whatever she'd expected, it certainly wasn't this. Her confusion, however, was a momentarily, fleeting thing, and the dark aura swelled up, the translucent image of the panther beginning to reform as she called upon Izuhara no Tamazuchi to destroy the Lunar Priestess.

Then her body jerked as a rock struck her head.

It wasn't a very big rock--five pounds at most--and it hadn't been thrown very hard because Himeko wasn't particularly athletic. The fact that she'd actually hit her target with a kind of two-handed shot put from halfway up the slope was amazing in and of itself. The impact of the crude, purely mortal weapon on the Orochi was negligible, no more bothersome than a friend's playful cuff upside the head. But it got her attention: she whirled, arm spinning to hurl her knife at the gnat that dared to interfere.

The sight of Himeko in danger was probably the only thing that could have commanded an instant, instinctive response from Chikane at that point, but it did. She scooped up her tanto and rammed it into the Orochi's exposed side. The throw never happened; the woman staggered back in pain and shock and in the next instant she was gone, black fire seeming to consume her.

"Chikane!"

Himeko's running feet on the grass.

"Chikane, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" She dropped to her own knees next to Chikane, her eyes pleading and worried. In the next instant Chikane had flung herself against Himeko, fisting her hands in Himeko's shirt as she buried her face against her sister's shoulder and wept, choking on the sorrow that threatened to consume her.

-X X X-

"Chikane?" Himeko asked, though _babbled_ was more like it. She didn't understand what had happened. One minute Chikane had been fighting the Orochi, and in the next had just...dropped, but without a blow being struck or any other kind of injury she could see. And now this, her beloved crying as if her soul had been torn out of her. "What did she do to you? How can I help? Chikane, tell me!" she pleaded. Her arms had closed around Chikane almost reflexively, but she was afraid to hold her tightly for fear there was some injury.

"Himeko! I'm sorry, Himeko. I'm so, so sorry!"

"C-Chikane?" _Sorry?_ Himeko thought helplessly. _Sorry about what?_ The only thing she could think of were the injuries the Orochi woman had inflicted. "I'm okay, really. I just got knocked around a bit. I've had worse just falling down, honest! You got here and saved me before anything really bad could happen, so...so it's okay, right?"

Chikane shook her head, still sobbing.

"No, n-not that," she wept. "What _I_ did. I didn't...I didn't even stop to think! Gods, I was so _stupid_!"

Himeko blinked helplessly.

"Chikane, I don't understand," she pleaded. "What's happened?"

"The Orochi. What she was saying..." She stopped, taking several deep, ragged breaths as if she was trying to inhale through her tears. "Oh, Himeko, _what if I'd done that to you?_"

"If you'd done what?" It was so frustrating, not knowing what it was that Chikane meant.

"When I--when I hurt you--" She sniffed, then shook her head. "No, let me say it. When I _raped_ you."

"Chikane, that was in our _past lives_!" Himeko protested. "You know that's over and done with." _Why on earth was she bringing it up now?_

"I wanted you to hate me. I wanted you to think I was a monster so that you'd be willing to kill me. So I did the worst thing to you that I could imagine, but I...I just assumed how you'd react to it."

_Oh._

"I never stopped to think, never realized what that kind of horror could do to you. What if you'd become like...like that woman? Or what if it had broken you? There are so many different ways people could react, and--"

Himeko cut off her protests the only way she could think of, by grabbing Chikane's arms and kissing her. It wasn't a gentle kiss, either, but warm and deep, the kind that sent tingles of fire through Himeko's own body. Chikane struggled against it for a second, but Himeko was insistent, nipping at her lover's lower lip, then probing with the tip of her tongue until Chikane's mouth flowered open beneath her own. Only when she felt the tension leave Chikane's body, her beloved relax into her arms, did she end the kiss.

"Chikane, you and I have been together for hundreds of years," Himeko said, "years that we don't even remember but that we feel in the depth of our hearts. If you didn't stop to think of what might have gone wrong, it's not because you were careless but because of how well you know me. Even though you didn't know how much I love you...and how could you, since I was so slow to understand it myself and caused you so much pain...even though you didn't know, you still understood in your heart that I would be all right. That's all. What another person might have felt or suffered in that place didn't matter, because you know _me_."

"Himeko..."

"So...please, Chikane? You were so horribly, horribly lost back then. I don't ever want to see you feeling any guilt or pain about anything you did to me or felt about me. All I want in life is to be your one and only Himeko. And even if I'm...I'm not the world's sun any more, please let me shine for you?"

Chikane buried her face against Himeko's shoulder again with a fresh wail. _Oh, no, I've messed it up again! What did I say?_

"I don't deserve you, Himeko!"

Himeko sighed with relief and let her arms close around Chikane again, holding her close.

"I feel the same way about you, you know."

Tears of relief always ended faster than tears of sorrow, and in a couple of minutes Himeko was kissing the wetness away from beneath Chikane's eyes. They suddenly jerked back from each other, though, at the sound of a loudly cleared throat.

"Er...am I interrupting a moment?"

They spun towards Marika, who for only the second time since Himeko had met her, was blushing.

"So...um...I guess you got here in time?"

The glare that Chikane had been starting to level at her for the interruption suddenly softened, then she smiled.

"Yes, thanks to you coming and finding me." She rose, helping Himeko to her feet.

"Well, then...yay for me?"

Himeko giggled, then hooked her arm through Chikane's as they went to find her bow. Maybe it was just for now, but at least in this moment everything was all right again.


	7. Sealed Futures

"Well, that sure worked out like you planned, didn't it?" Kei chortled. He popped a wasabi pea into his mouth with a snap of his thumb, then dug into the can for another. "'Course, it gave me the chance to catch up on some personal business, so I shouldn't complain too much, but at some point we have to get on with the business at hand like the old man's always saying." He popped in another pea while waving absently at Abe.

"At least your personal business didn't hurt my family," Reiko muttered. The evening news, in Tokyo at least, had been full of the gangland carnage, the messy slaughter of a dozen or so suspected members of the Taki-gumi yakuza clan along with an equal number of innocent bystanders. The story had pushed the Himemiya Financial Group's troubles--what with the death of Himemiya Macrotech's COO and the apparent terrorist strike on another recent addition to the Himemiya _keiretsu_, Nishida Advanced Design--down to second place.

"You do realize, Reiko, that your family will be as dead as all the rest of the world when Yamata no Orochi consumes all," Saori pointed out.

"Of course, but that doesn't mean I want to keep hurting them along the way. They're no worse than people I haven't met, like those in foreign countries. Not like those damned priestesses!"

"Priestess," Akemi corrected. Her voice was heavy with pain; though the wound in her side was now just a pale pink scar in the process of fading to white the healing had taken a lot out of her. It was fortunate that her god had begun to reincorporate itself before Tsukuyo had stabbed her, or else she might have bled out like a normal person. An Orochi took a lot of killing, but a Neck's ability to regenerate was dependent on their god. Kill both at once, and the Neck stayed dead. "The blonde, Hikari, isn't the Solar Priestess."

"What!" Reiko yelped. "But that's impossible!"

"Why? Nothing says that the priestesses have to be sisters, or even to have any relationship at all before their destiny calls them," Abe pointed out. Perhaps the most despair-ridden of the Necks, he seemed to be the most dedicated to the annihilation of life out of the Orochi and as a consequence had been most deeply steeped in the lore of their god through his psychic communion with it.

"Then where is she?" Hirata asked. "We're supposed to be able to feel her, somehow, right? We Orochi?"

"I still don't believe it," Reiko declared sulkily. "If there's anyone in this world who's the sun to Tsukuyo's moon, it's Hikari. Ever since I met them in kindergarten, that girl is the only one in the world who can get close to her."

"That's natural enough for twin sisters," said Saori dismissively. "Akemi had the right idea, anyway. The sister is someone the Lunar Priestess will strive to protect, so she is a tool we can use to manipulate the one we need to kill. As for the Solar Priestess," she added with an elegant shrug, "we'll simply have to look harder."

"We have a more important matter to address," Ozawa interjected. It was the first thing the Seventh Neck had said since Akemi's return, and all heads swiveled in his direction.

"What the hell's more important than a missing priestess? Seems to me we'd better find her fast since we're having no luck with the one we've got now."

"Precisely, Kei."

"Huh?" He was startled by the agreement, so spun his head around and ended up bouncing the next pea off his cheek.

"The First Neck attempted to destroy the Lunar Priestess, but she escaped from Reiko. The Sixth Neck then attempted the same task, but was overcome in battle, albeit with the help of a distraction. How has this occurred? Tsukuyo Asamiya has not summoned Ame no Murakumo to fight us, yet has defeated two separate Orochi. This should not be possible."

Kei waved his hand airily.

"Yeah, well, Reiko wants her naked, not dead--a position which I've gotta say has its merits--and Akemi doesn't like killing girls. Told you I should have been the one."

"You mistake my point. We are the Necks of Orochi. We, each of us, is paired with one of the gods of destruction that will shatter the world with fire and storm and quake. Can you imagine the power you currently hold destroying the world, Second Neck?"

Above them, the dark sun seemed to pulse angrily, its swirling vortex seeming to seethe with rage. The will of Orochi, it seemed, understood its Seventh Neck's insinuations and did not like them.

"Well...no, I can't."

"Nor I. Can any of you?" His gaze swept his fellow Orochi, none of whom seemed inclined to contradict him. "Precisely. We wield but the Shadows of our gods' power, but the greater part of Orochi's might remains absent. Power that would annihilate the Lunar Priestess regardless of how hard she struggles. We must find out why this is and correct the problem, or else the ones to be destroyed may be us."

-X X X-

"Maybe you should make Marika stay home from classes," Chikane suggested. Takeshi Ohgami had called not long after they'd gotten back to the dorm, the delay being very little more than it took Marika to commute home. "I'm very glad she was there to come find me before anything could happen to Himeko, but hanging around in the open with us is just putting her in harm's way."

Himeko yelped upon hearing that.

"I'll think about it," Reverend Ohgami said. "She's a very strong-willed girl, but there are times when she will have to simply stop and listen to her father."

Somewhat cynically, Chikane wondered how well that would work. Marika wasn't exactly the type to meekly follow orders, and whatever one could say about her, she was passionately loyal to her friends. But it would be better if she wasn't out exposed to danger, for Himeko's sake at least.

"In any case, there's another matter I want to talk to you about, although the outcome of this second attack does tie in well with it."

"Indeed?" Chikane was interested.

"Yes; I think it may be significant towards explaining some of what you've experienced thus far. Let me read a passage to you."

"Go ahead."

Ohgami cleared his throat.

"'The demon of incarnate malice is called Eight-Headed Orochi, and its eight heads are the gods of destruction: Take no Sukunazuchi, Yatsunoo no Koshizuchi, Hi no Ashinazuchi, Ooube no Senazuchi, Ho no Shuraizuchi, Izuhara no Tamazuchi, Take no Yamikazuchi, and Yokusemi no Mizuchi. And these heads shall rest upon the Eight Necks and be borne by them and be wielded as they direct. And thus as the spirit of Orochi itself lies sealed beneath the Lunar Shrine, so too do these pieces of its body lie sealed within the earth so that try as Orochi might to call upon them, this may not be done, until that day when the malice of humanity has grown so strong as to bridge the gap and day and night are once again rejoined.' Do you see what I mean?"

"I'm not certain that I understand," Chikane said. "It appears to be a retelling of the part of the legend specifically concerned with the Orochi, although 'day and night rejoined' clearly refers to the priestesses."

"That's what I thought at first, too, but then I started to think about it in light of what is happening now and what you and Hikari have told us."

Chikane glanced at Himeko. What Ohgami was talking about was actually more of her twin's specialty than her own. While Chikane was superior at logical analysis and deduction, and hence at making advance plans, sometimes quite complex ones, she often constrained herself by making unwarranted assumptions. It was Himeko who could "think outside the box" and turn a problem on its head to find a creative solution.

"And it relates to the fights I've had with the Orochi, also?"

"I think so. It's the part about the eight gods being sealed within the earth. I'd always taken that as just another description of how Yamata no Orochi remained contained until its day of awakening, but what if it's not? What if it refers to a literal, separate seal or seals placed upon the eight gods, distinct from the seal which restrained the will of Orochi itself?"

Chikane sat upright.

"I see. You're suggesting that even though Yamata no Orochi has called to the eight Necks, they have been unable to fully tap into the power of their respective gods--that the Shadows of the gods are just that, the barest fraction of their power, a reflection of their identity and little more. In other words, just as my power as Lunar Priestess is partially sealed, so are the Orochi working under the same restriction."

She paused as a memory came to her.

"Reverend, in the last cycle there were various shrines and prayer gates around Mahoroba that were destroyed simultaneously with the Orochi's awakening. Do you think those might be the seals we are discussing?"

"It could easily be. Mahoroba is a special place in the battle between the Orochi and Ame no Murakumo, the place where the earth meets the world of the gods."

"Unfortunately, this does nothing to help us find the Solar Priestess."

"I know that. Still, it does give us some explanation of what has happened so far, and provides hope that we may have a chance, the breathing room to solve our own problems."

"Maybe. I just hope they don't take steps to solve theirs, or else apply strategy to their next attack."

There was a moment of silence on the line.

"I apologize, Tsukuyo," Ohgami finally said. "It is all too easy to forget that you are the one fighting these battles, and thus far doing so alone."

"No, I allowed the situation to get the better of me. You didn't deserve it."

"You are gracious, but I do need to remember your circumstances. We'll continue our research here."

"Thank you." They hung up, and Chikane put away the phone.

"Did the Ohgamis learn anything interesting?" Himeko asked. "It sounded like it."

"I think so." She summed up the other half of the conversation while Himeko nodded along, taking in the details.

"I wonder why that is?" she said curiously. Her puzzled expression made Chikane giggle.

"Chikane!"

"You really don't know?" she asked, still laughing.

"No, I don't. You're mean to tease me," Himeko pouted, and Chikane gave in.

"All right. It's because of you."

"Ehhh?" She pointed at herself. "Me?"

"You sealed the Orochi away last time. You chose the new world we'd be reborn into. You did it without despair and without worry, unlike me. You did it in the spirit of love, just as you chose to join me in my imprisonment within the shrine rather than returning to your life in the new world. The power of Orochi is the power of mankind's malice, and a world built in love simply has less malice to offer than one chosen in pain and suffering. So the will of Orochi slept an extra three years, and its lesser selves remained sealed."

Himeko's jaw sagged.

"And _I_ did that?"

"Who else? And it's a good thing you did, too. Without a Solar Priestess to help summon Ame no Murakumo, the Orochi would have a huge advantage. Without a Souma Ohgami to turn sides and defend us, either Reiko or that Sixth Neck from today would have had no trouble overwhelming what little power I have. It's thanks to you we still have a chance."

"I'm glad. I really hope that I can still be useful, even if I'm not someone special."

"There's no one more special to me."

Himeko blushed, which Chikane thought was so cute.

"Chikane, you know what I mean!"

"Yes, but any chance I have to say 'I love you' is worth taking."

Himeko gave her that cute, shy smile she so often got when faced with spontaneous compliments. Chikane liked it better than the embarrassed blush the old Himeko, the Himeko-before-they-were-lovers had shown, because it meant that she'd grown into more self-worth. Of course, she still blushed at the drop of a hat when embarrassed, but that was for different reasons and Chikane found it cute, too.

"I love you too, Chikane. Oh!" Himeko's eyes widened as a thought seemed to strike her. She spun to where she'd tossed her bag on her bed and began to fish through it. "We keep forgetting this, or it keeps getting pushed aside by some crisis."

She took out an oblong package done up in sparkling white paper with a red bow, about the size of a jewelry box. _Her birthday present for me_, Chikane thought. She'd thought it likely that Himeko would get her jewelry; her lover had always had a taste for adorning her with accessories.

It was true that they'd missed out on a couple of opportunities to celebrate their birthday, but that wasn't only bad luck. The truth was, Chikane _had_ thought of it more than once and had chosen not to bring it up.

"Have you been carrying that around with you since yesterday?"

"I'm sorry the bow got a little squished. I made sure to bring it with me yesterday morning; I didn't want to leave it lying around where I couldn't get it in case I was attacked by giant robots." She made a curious face, touching her lower lip with an index finger. "I wonder why the Orochi look so different in this cycle? Maybe it's because they're still sealed?"

"I don't know. Perhaps it varies with the nature of the chosen world?"

"Maybe. I think Souma would be sad if he was still alive; I think he liked being a mecha pilot."

Chikane chuckled. "Just like the hero in some action manga." She didn't actually dislike Souma Ohgami, but it was hard to be too kind about the boy who'd once been a rival for Himeko's affections.

"But! As it turned out the Orochi _did_ attack, and I _do_ still have your present instead of leaving it sitting in a wrecked classroom. So...um...happy belated birthday, Chikane!"

She extended the gift to her sister. Chikane took it, smiling at the other girl's enthusiasm, and tugged on the trailing end of the ribbon, smoothly untying it. She then slipped a fingernail under the fold in the paper at one end and snapped the tape, deftly opening the paper without tearing it. She set the wrappings aside and held the slim black box in her hands for a moment, then raised the lid.

Inside was a necklace, a silver locket on a simple chain. Chikane lifted it out, letting it dangle from her fingers. The locket was in the shape of a clamshell, the two halves pressed together, and was a pretty piece with nice detail work. Chikane brushed her fingertips over the shell's surface.

"_Kaiawase_," she whispered. "The matched shells." She felt her eyes grow wet. It had been in their past lives when she'd told Himeko about the shell matching game, how that for every shell there was only one other in all the world that matched it exactly. There was also another side of it, though--every shell absolutely did have that one matching twin, since each clam did have two shells. People were like that, too, she'd told Himeko, and all the while her heart was bleeding as she assured the girl she loved that there was someone out there for her. She'd told her that to encourage her, back when Himeko was still a shrinking violet unaware of her own strength and while Chikane herself was still suffering from the delusion that the best she could hope for was to assure Himeko's happiness with someone else.

It was also one of the first things Himeko had said to her when the doors of the Lunar Shrine had slammed shut, sealing both their souls inside: _I want us to be together forever...just like the two halves of a clamshell_. It was a promise between them, a promise that they weren't just friends or priestesses fighting together or sun and moon, but a couple in love, that they would be together not just because of destiny or fate but because they chose it.

She opened the locket and saw the characters written inside spelling out their names. Her eyes were tearing up as she closed it again, kissed the tiny shell, and slipped the chain over her head. She had no intention of taking it off again, ever.

"I don't know what to say, Himeko," she said, sniffling a little. "I love it." She clenched her fist around the locket, feeling the metal grow warm in her hand.

"You do? I'm so glad! I'd hoped you'd like it, but I was a little worried. You're really hard to buy for."

She was smiling that wide, bright smile that always lit up Chikane's heart, the one that made Himeko the sun in her life regardless of whether or not she was the Solar Priestess. It struck Chikane again just how much she didn't deserve someone as pure as Himeko. Oh, she was mostly over the old complaint, that her physical desires for another girl were dark and ugly; the gods knew that Himeko didn't find them anything of the sort. There were other parts of her, though, or maybe parts that were just missing. What kind of person, after all, could be so disconnected from humanity that she could stand by and watch them die because logic told her it was more likely she'd be able to protect them in the future? What kind of person could have deliberately chosen to torment the one she claimed to love in so many different ways, all as part of a carefully planned scheme for that loved one's allegedly ultimate benefit?

And she, this corrupt, broken person, was the one whom Himeko loved? The one whom a girl that made, not innocence, precisely, but purity into an art form looked at and said, "You are the other half of my soul. You are the one perfect match for me in all the world."

It was almost a joke, one of those cosmic ironies the gods liked to inflict on the world. And Chikane felt blessed by it every day of her life.

She didn't say any of that or burst into a deluge of tears. She'd already done that once that day, after all, and that was enough, no, more than enough worry to cause Himeko. Instead, she smiled, still holding the locket, and said, "It's perfect."

Himeko let out a giant sigh of happiness. Unfortunately, that made it time for Chikane to face what she'd been ducking for a day and a half. Once again, though, her cleverness hadn't been able to deflect the drive of Himeko's emotions.

"I have a gift for you, too," she admitted, "but under the circumstances I think I chose badly."

"Don't be silly, Chikane. I love my bear. He's really cute!" She picked up the stuffed toy and hugged it. "Though I do need to think up a name for him. Maybe you could help?"

Chikane laughed, unable to help herself.

"Himeko, you silly girl, the bear isn't the gift! I just thought it was cute."

"Oh. I wondered a little, since you had said that we'd exchange gifts over yesterday's lunch, but when you didn't say anything I thought maybe you'd decided to give me mine early as a wake-up surprise. I know you'd never come out and ask for your present, so I thought that could be it."

_And_ _she_ _unerringly hits the sore spot_. Sometimes it was very surprising just how well Himeko seemed to know her.

Chikane shook her head.

"No, there's another present; it's just that I didn't choose well and I feel a bit embarrassed now, giving it to you."

"Chikane, don't be silly."

"I'm not, really. But...here, you'll see." She got up, opened her desk drawer, and took out a fancy red envelope with gilt design and a wax seal, which she handed to Himeko. Her beloved turned it over twice in her hands, noting her elaborately calligraphed name on the front, done with brush and ink.

"The gift itself is kind of plain, so I was fancier than I had to be with the envelope." As always when she gave anything to Himeko there was a little ball of nerves in the pit of her stomach.

"It's really pretty, Chikane." Himeko started to push her finger under the flap, then stopped, frowned, glanced around the room, and held the envelope out to Chikane. "Um, would you open it for me, please? I don't want to break the wax because I'd like to keep the envelope, and I don't think I could open it intact."

Chikane smiled.

"All right." She slipped the point of her letter opener under the edge of the flap, used her fingers to apply pressure to the envelope so no force was transmitted to the seal, and slit the envelope open before returning it to Himeko.

"Thanks; I'm all thumbs at stuff like that."

Himeko turned the envelope over and let its contents, two pieces of pasteboard, spill out into her palm. Her eyes widened when she saw what they were.

"Tickets to the Ryoko Imahara exhibition in Kyoto?" she squealed happily. "Oh, Chikane! I might even get the chance to meet her!" Imahara was a photographer whose work Himeko really admired, even owning three books collecting her work. In a couple of seconds, though, curiosity overcame her excitement. "But why is this a bad gift? Can't we afford the train fare?"

Chikane shook her head.

"No; I'd looked up hotels and train rates online and found that we'd be all right, although our room would be strictly no-frills and we could pretty much forget about trying any local delicacies."

"So what's the problem?"

"The tickets are for this coming Sunday, and I don't think we're going to have the free time to go."

"Why? Did you have a big test scheduled for the next week you need the study time for?"

Chikane laughed despite her worries.

"No; I was thinking more along the lines of saving the world from the Orochi." She tossed a pillow at Himeko, catching her full in the face.

"Oof!" Himeko was blushing furiously. "Geez, I'm not _that_ much of a ditz!" Chikane just arched an eyebrow at her without saying a word. "Okay, maybe I am. But it's not like I really _forgot_ about the Orochi or anything like that. It's just...well, it felt for a bit there like we'd had our normal lives back, that's all. So I guess I'd just put the entire shrine maidens thing out of my mind for a few minutes, that's all. Like it was part of another world or something."

_Our "normal" lives,_ Chikane thought. _So Himeko was having some of the same thoughts that I was._ She touched the clamshell locket again and thought of the promise of forever that it contained. Then she thought again of the fact that Himeko wasn't the Solar Priestess and those implications. _"Another world," indeed._ The thought of what that meant was like a shard of ice in Chikane's heart.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: A couple of manga-specific references get dropped in this chapter. The idea of shrines around Mahoroba sealing the eight Orochi gods is based on a comment by Kazuki in vol. 1 about how several shrines and prayer gates were destroyed at the time of the Orochi's emergence. And while in the anime Himeko leaves Chikane's present in her dorm room, it gets left in her school classroom in the manga._


	8. Determining a Course

"I know that you have reservations, Reverend Ohgami," Chikane said, "but under the circumstances I think that we have to make the attempt. In light of yesterday's attack, I believe it to be clear that the Orochi are not going to let us pursue our agenda leisurely."

Himeko was always impressed by how effortlessly Chikane could move between formal and informal speech. It was almost second nature to her, the way she could combine the precision of word choice with polite phrasing at will. If Himeko tried that she'd probably end up spraining her tongue.

"Nonetheless, Tsukuyo, the requirements are very clear."

"Are you any closer to finding the Solar Priestess?" she asked him directly.

He clearly did not want to admit the point, but like so many other people faced by Chikane's stare he gave in. That was another thing Himeko envied about her; she herself couldn't work up any kind of forceful personality unless it was over something she cared about a whole lot.

"No," the priest was forced to admit. "We aren't. There's nothing that we've found in any of the shrine's archives thus far that suggest that there's ever been a missing priestess. Destiny is supposed to draw them--you--together."

Chikane's gaze flicked to Himeko.

"It always has," she agreed.

"Thus far, we haven't found a way to accelerate that. Given that it has been two days now, I worry...what if the Orochi have found her first?"

Chikane shook her head.

"No. I know what it feels like when the Solar Priestess dies. It is as if half of my soul has been ripped out of me." She quickly turned to Himeko and added, "I'm not just talking about the emotional pain, but in the spiritual sense, the feeling that death had severed the link connecting us as priestesses."

"I don't think that the Orochi know any more about her than we do," Himeko pointed out. "When that woman attacked me, she was expecting me to be the Solar Priestess. She realized right away that I wasn't, so I guess the Orochi can feel that somehow, but she thought that I was. So they weren't even looking for someone else until yesterday evening."

"That's a good point," Ohgami said. "At least we have a head start in the search."

"But at the same time, it just goes to emphasize my own point," Chikane seized the opportunity. "The Orochi will want to kill the priestesses, but they only know of one: me. It's almost guaranteed, then, that there will be further attacks."

"Except that the reason that they seek to destroy the priestesses is so they can create the very situation that we are currently faced with: not having both priestesses available to fulfill their duties."

"That argument seems circular to me. What I don't see is, where's the harm in trying? We have everything to gain and nothing to lose."

"There is a great deal to lose! A holy ritual gathers the energies of the gods. If not completed properly, that power can be released wildly and could injure or even kill the participants. Will you risk doing the Orochi's work for them?"

"I have to try. If I am going to protect Himeko and myself, then I am going to need the full power of the Lunar Priestess. We cannot afford to play a waiting game when the odds are so badly against us."

Their eyes met, and the sudden tension made Himeko want to flinch away or hide behind something.

"Um..."

"Yesterday it was your own daughter who was at risk, Reverend Ohgami; Marika only survived because Himeko deliberately chose to lead the Orochi away in another direction."

It was Ohgami that flinched rather than Himeko. Himeko knew that Chikane's deft cruelty was as much a mask as the Lunar Priestess's imperious air of command or Miya-sama's princesslike attitude, but it still made her sad that her beloved could say something like that.

"I..."

"I understand that there are risks, but the greatest risk lies in doing nothing. We cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear just because events are not unfolding to expectation."

He frowned slightly, then at last sighed and nodded.

"Very well. Will you proceed at once?"

"Yes. I'll need a short time to prepare. Do you have the vestments here?"

"Of course. I'll show you."

He took them down the hall to another room, where he opened a chest and took out a finely made broad, flat wooden box which he set on the room's single low table. He lifted the lid, revealing the neatly folded white jacket trimmed with violet and violet _hakama_ pants that were the formal vestments of the Lunar Priestess.

"Will this room be all right for you to change in?" I'm sure that Marika would not mind lending you her bedroom if you need a mirror."

"This will be fine, thank you."

"Very well, then. I'll await you outside." He stepped out into the hall and slid the screen shut.

Himeko watched Chikane lift the outfit out of its box, gently smoothing out the folds with her palms. The sight brought back a warm rush of nostalgia; while their names and families might change with each reincarnation and even in Mahoroba time relentlessly marched on, changing as the ages passed, this did not. The Lunar Priestess's garb was the same as it had been in the cycle before, and the cycle before that, and even in memories that were mere phantoms, stretching all the way to their very first battle against Yamata no Orochi. It was something as eternal as Chikane herself; seeing her twin holding it made her feel a strange sense of rightness, of destiny met and fulfilled.

"Would you hold this for a minute, Himeko?"

"Sure."

Chikane passed the vestments over, then pulled her T-shirt off, unbuttoned her jeans, and pushed the pants down before stepping out of them. Himeko couldn't help smiling at her. Chikane turned to take the Lunar Priestess's garb and saw Himeko's open appreciation.

"Himeko..."

"What? My Chikane has a perfect body. I'm envious!" And then, because she knew what response it would provoke, she softly added, "Although that does mean that I get to touch it..."

As she expected, a delicate blush stained Chikane's cheeks a faint pink. She was kind of envious of that, too--Chikane was even embarrassed in ladylike fashion, but she also thought it was incredibly cute.

"Himeko, stop that," Chikane said, but without any force to it.

"Why? This is the one thing I can tease you about and get a reaction."

"Who would have thought shy, sweet you could be so shameless?"

"Uh-huh!" Himeko refused to back down. "Because it's you. Why shouldn't I want to show my love?"

"Why not, indeed," Chikane said, and pulled off her sports bra.

Himeko sighed. "You're cruel, Chikane. But I'm still going to watch."

Chikane swiftly donned the undertunic, the longer top jacket, and the pleated, billowing _hakama_. Since the sash tied in front, she was able to do it up by herself, which still impressed Himeko.

"There!" she said. "Is everything all right?"

"Uh-huh; it's all perfect."

"Good. That just leaves one more thing."

"What's that?"

Chikane went over to the chest where Reverend Ohgami had kept the vestments and took out a second, identical box. From it she took the second set of priestess vestments, identical to her own except for that red replaced the violet.

"Chikane...?"

"It doesn't make much sense to have only one of us properly dressed for the ritual."

Himeko shook her head.

"But it's not right. Only the Solar Priestess should wear that outfit. It's wrong if I do it."

"It's also wrong to perform the ritual of unsealing wearing your ordinary day-to-day clothes. It would show disrespect.

"Perform?" Himeko squeaked. "I wasn't going to perform anything!"

"It takes two people. With only one, it would be out of balance. It's not like summoning Ame no Murakumo, where one priestess only has to shed blood and pray while the other performs the rites and incantations."

"Two priestesses, not just two people!"

"But it does have to be two. It's impossible to do it with just one. It would be like trying to row a rowboat with an oar on only one side. It would be like Reverend Ohgami said, very likely dangerous because the energies being summoned aren't properly directed."

"Then get someone else. Reverend Ohgami could do it."

"He's a man, Himeko; the ritual is designed for two shrine maidens."

"Well..." She fished for an answer for a bit before coming up with one. "What about Professor Ohgami, then? She's the eldest daughter of the Ohgami family and was trained as a priestess of this shrine before she gave it up to become a scientist. And Reverend Ohgami did say that she knew more about the rituals than he ever did!"

"Himeko--"

She clenched her fists in frustration.

"Chikane, I'm not the Solar Priestess or anything any more. I don't have any kind of power or know any magic or holy rituals. It's not going to help you to go on as if I did."

"Himeko..."

Chikane set down the garment box and came over to her twin. She took one of Himeko's hands in her own and gently cradled it, opening the clenched fist to better touch both sides. Chikane took a deep breath, then spoke.

"I know that you aren't the Solar Priestess, although I don't understand it," she began. "That doesn't change the fact that I need you by my side. It's not just as Chikane the girl, either, but as the Lunar Priestess. Without you, there's no way that I can be who people want me to be, need me to be. It's not just that I'm doing it for you, but because you're there." A hitch came into her voice, a hesitancy. "So...please?"

"All right, Chikane," Himeko submitted. She wasn't sure it was a good idea--no, she was all but convinced that it wasn't--but she would do it for Chikane's sake, not just out of love but because her sister asked her for so little, sought very few favors and only then when it was really important to her. Unlike Himeko, she was much more comfortable giving than taking. "I'll do this with you."

"Thank you."

Himeko started undoing her shirt buttons, then paused and grinned slyly. "Admit it, you just want me to put on the miko outfit so you can watch me take my clothes off."

Her teasing was as much a question that the tension between them had eased, and Chikane confirmed it by smiling back.

"Now, Himeko, if that was my goal, I would have just stayed home with you today," she said, and gently tapped the tip of Himeko's nose.

-X X X-

"It doesn't look like much," Kei said doubtfully. To be fair, he was right. The small shrine was set in an out-of-the-way glade, up a winding path about a hundred meters from a road that was a country lane on the outskirts of town anyway. The shrine was weatherbeaten, its paint peeling, even a crack running from a knot in one of the boards. The _shimenawa_ rope tied around the stand was fraying, and the _shide_ streamers descending from it tattered and torn. The priest who took care of the shrine was a man named Yanagii; he was in his late eighties now and simply unable to carry out his duties to their fullest extent, but pride had prevented him from admitting it and ceding his duties to a younger person.

Reiko knew all this, but was in no mood to hear it, at least not from Kei. None of it had anything to do with the point at hand.

"The issue isn't what it looks like, Kei. The question is, what's _inside_? Is it just a shrine, or is it a seal?"

Kei snorted.

"This old piece of junk? It couldn't seal up a kitten. If you ask me--"

"You have an awful lot to say, don't you?" Reiko snapped. "The Himemiya family endows all kinds of shrines around Mahoroba. That isn't a coincidence, you know. The Himemiya founded this village; we're its heart and soul--and Mahoroba is the place where the world of the gods touches the earth. The connection isn't _random_. These shrines are supposed to contain evil spirits, after all."

It was almost exhilarating, Reiko thought. The old Reiko would never have been like that--forceful, sharp-tongued. This was the way Tsukuyo would be, wouldn't it, if she was faced with a recalcitrant retainer? For honest mistakes, one would be gracious, but for intentional wrongdoing or arrogant encroachment--ah! She'd seen Tsukuyo boldly, forcefully deliver a setdown that left its object slinking away in shame, but she never had imagined that she herself might be able to do the same.

Then again, she wasn't the wallflower any more. She held a position worthy of a Himemiya at last, the First Neck of Orochi!

"Well," Kei admitted, then grinned as he finished the thought, "if it's evil spirits they're talking about, then we certainly can give them a taste of that!"

Still grinning toothily, he flexed his hands and the air around him seemed to _thicken_, clouding up into a dark shadow like the swollen body of a kraken. Coiling tentacles of black shadow extended from the shape, pale violet lightning crackling along their length. They snaked towards the shrine, seeming to poke and prod towards it, and as the dark extrusions neared the shrine it began to glow in response. It was a golden aura, but there was something else, a darkness within, pushing at the gold seal from inside. It swelled and throbbed, trying to reach out towards the seeking shadows.

"Oh, yeahhh," Kei said. "Damn, that's it, isn't it? One of the eight gods--the real thing, isn't it, not just some lousy Shadow."

"Is it yours?"

"Can't tell. Damn seal's in the way." He punched his fist into his left palm. "Not for long, though!"

The tentacles lanced down, striking like snakes at the golden veil. It seemed certain the thin aura would be ripped apart by the darkness assaulting it from both sides.

But it wasn't.

Gold light flashed and the shadowy tentacles recoiled, snapping backwards as if they'd touched an electric fence. Kei grunted in pain and cursed under his breath, then spat on the grass.

"So that's the way it's going to be, eh? Gonna make me work for it?" The violet lightning crackling around the shadow projections blazed up, and what looked like single eyes opened in the tips of each tentacle. Electricity lashed down, crashing into the shrine, then rebounded back, striking the ground, blasting the top off one of the surrounding trees, spearing the air. Again Kei unleashed the lightning, a hail of fire that could have blown apart an armored car or a cottage--but not, apparently, the shrine's seal. One of the rebounding bolts almost struck Reiko, but she parried with the black sword of Take no Sukunazuchi.

"Together this time," she snapped, and unleashed a blast of force from the sword into the glowing shrine accompanied by another hail of violet lightning. The force of the reflected assault this time was enough to send the two Orochi sprawling. The dark shadow inside seethed and twisted, as if the destroying god was raging in frustration, but the golden aura was untouched.

Reiko let out a groan, shaking her head. Kei got back to his feet with a roar, summoning up all the power of Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi that was his to command.

"Stop it, Kei!"

"_What?_" he roared, rounding on her.

"I said stop!" she snapped back. _Yes!_ she thrilled in her heart. It was so exciting, so exhilarating to be wielding this power. Not the sheer power to destroy that was Take no Sukunazuchi, but the power of command over herself, the willpower to _act_, be bold and decisive. To be, in short, the kind of girl that Tsukuyo Asamiya wouldn't have overlooked for year after year!

"What the hell are you talking about? Damn it, First, this thing--"

"--has shrugged off an attack by both of us together," Reiko finished his sentence in what she was sure was a much more sensible fashion than Kei would have. "This isn't like a wall that you can just beat on with a hammer until it breaks. In case you hadn't noticed, this sealed shrine hits _back_."

Kei scowled at her, then at the shrine, then back at her. He muttered a few more curses, but then the Shadow of Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi faded. With the active presence of the Orochi gone, the light from the shrine and its imprisoned darkness faded as well.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do, huh?"

"Firstly, you calm down. In case you haven't realized, we've managed to learn something here--that I was right. This shrine _is_ sealing one of the Orochi gods."

"So? Fat lot of good that does if we can't get to it."

Reiko sighed. Was it possible this oaf was the same age as she was? He had the hatred and the violence that suited an Orochi, but good God, he was sometimes so _stupid_. Or maybe it was just obstinate pigheadedness, but it added up to the same thing. Even Reiko's weak-spirited former self had never been stupid.

"The point is," she explained slowly and patiently, "that we now know what the problem is. Before we had nothing but guesses, but now we know, and it gives us a chance to plan."

"All right, then, what is this plan?"

"First things first. This is one shrine, but there should be seven more, seven other sealed gods. Once we know _what_, then we can figure out how. Maybe it has to be the correct god's Neck that breaks it out and this isn't one of ours. Maybe there's some ritual to do it. We can all pool our knowledge--but first, we've got other shrines to investigate."

She extended a hand to Kei. He hesitated, then reached down, took it, and helped her to her feet.

"Thank you."

Perhaps this was what had caused her attraction to Tsukuyo, not the girl's beauty and charm but envy, a yearning to possess the confidence and poise she herself lacked by cleaving to another who had them. Certainly as the First Neck of Orochi she didn't feel the same craving as she had in the past. She had something better.

And once the gods of Orochi were fully unleashed, she would make the world feel it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: The description of how the summon-Ame-no-Murakumo ritual works in the manga world (as opposed to the anime) is based on how it happened: Himeko wishes, and the god shows up, and then Tsubasa reacts: "You used the blood from your first time to..." Thus, I assume that Chikane performed the actual ritual of summoning while Himeko was unconscious, leaving it "open-ended" so all Himeko had to do was pray for assistance at the appropriate time and Ame no Murakumo answered. Japanese _Shinto_ terminology is taken from Wikipedia._


	9. The Rites of Autumn

Reverend Ohgami was not happy. He hadn't been convinced of the wisdom of Chikane's plan to begin with, and the sight of Himeko dressed as the Solar Priestess merely redoubled his doubts.

"This is wrong," he said, even as he led the girls through the thicket behind the shrine. To say that their course was off the beaten path was no more than the simple truth--there were paths through the forested area, but the route they took was not on them. Only the Ohgami family knew the series of landmarks--not even trail signs, but simply a series of natural features, a particularly gnarled root _here_, a split-trunked maple _there_, and so on--that led to the hidden shrine. Himeko was sure she wouldn't have been able to find it herself; while she'd gone there twice in her previous life (and who knew how many times in the forgotten lives before that) it was too long ago and things were too different.

Chikane didn't seem to have that problem; certainly she showed no hesitation as she picked her way through the trees. She didn't seem to really be following Ohgami so much as traveling in the same direction. For her part, Himeko was just glad the priestess outfits had sandals for footwear instead of wooden _geta_. She'd worn those once in the course of a class project and if she had to walk through the forest in them she'd snap an ankle after three steps.

"She is not the Solar Priestess. She should not be wearing those vestments, nor entering the sacred ground of Ame no Murakumo. It mocks the sanctity of the rite and may rouse the god's wrath."

"If it wasn't for Himeko, Yamata no Orochi would have won last time. I'm the one who should incur Ame no Murakumo's anger if it should fall."

"Be that as it may be, she has no power. She can add nothing to the ritual and indeed may put it, and even herself, at risk!"

"Reverend Ohgami, I have heard all of those objections before," Chikane said coolly. "You've said nothing thus far that Himeko didn't already point out." The unspoken implication, _If I didn't listen to those objections from her, why would I hear them from you?_ hung between them. Miya-sama had made a pronouncement, and that as far as Chikane was concerned was that.

"If she herself objected, then why have you insisted upon her presence?" Ohgami replied, clearly thinking that was _not_ that.

"Because I feel strongly about this as Lunar Priestess," she said. There was just a tone of anger in her voice, only a whisper that no one else would have noticed, but Himeko did. She took several quick steps forward and clasped her twin's hand. Chikane turned to look at her, surprised, and Himeko smiled back. Chikane returned the smile, and when Himeko released her hand Chikane brushed her fingertips across Himeko's palm in a subtle caress.

"The ritual requires two," Chikane added, her calmness restored. "It won't work if done alone, and I do not have the power to break the priestesses' seal by pure force. If it is to work, then I need a partner, and there can be no one better than Himeko for that, since she has performed the ritual with me countless times in the past."

"Unless she is no longer the Solar Priestess in the present cycle because of the will of Ame no Murakumo."

"If there is a price to be paid for offending the god, then I will pay it, but we must press forward or all may be lost." She then rather bluntly changed the subject. "Have you made any progress in determining what shrines might be the ones associated with the sealed Orochi?"

"As to that, we have. There are many shrines throughout Mahoroba, more than one might expect in a town this size."

"Well, it is the center of the battle between Ame no Murakumo and the Orochi," Himeko pointed out. "The people have good reason to seek the gods' protection."

"That's so, but there may also be another reason."

"Camouflage?" Chikane suggested.

"That's what Minako speculated as well. The presence of so many shrines may well be to disguise the identity of those few which are important, to prevent inadvertent tampering."

Himeko shivered at the thought of an Orochi god somehow being unsealed during the interval between cycles.

"But there is a clue. The seals on the Orochi are part of the web of destiny," Ohgami continued. "They would actually date to the beginning of the conflict, to the first time you defeated the god of destruction. In that way, if we find that a particular shrine or prayer gate has a specific and limited history, we will know that it is _not_ one of those we are looking for."

"That's good thinking," Chikane said. "Once we've narrowed down the possibilities, we can investigate directly, and see if there's any way we can reinforce the seals or else to interfere with the Orochi's attempts to break them. Of course, we'll have to be careful so that we don't end up leading our enemies directly to what they need."

The priest nodded. If he was going to respond, though, it was lost when the trees parted and they found themselves staring at the hillside. The leafy canopy was so thick they'd come up on it without Himeko even noticing that it was there. The rock face was bare stone, but there was a narrow gap in it, the mouth of a cave.

"This...this cave is technically on the Himemiya estates, isn't it?" Himeko remembered. "Do you think that they know about it? It would be pretty bad if Reiko did..."

Chikane frowned.

"I don't think so. In this world, there doesn't seem to be any connection between the family and the legend of the priestesses. My grandfather had schemed from the very beginning to try and take advantage of the last cycle, but it seems that only the Orochi blood was passed down to Reiko this time, without deeper meaning."

"Souma and Tsubasa talked about 'Orochi blood' before, too," Himeko said. "But...I thought the Orochi were people called by despair, resentment, and hatred for the world?"

"The way my grandfather explained it is, the power of the gods can only manifest through certain bloodlines that have a connection to the spirit world, like how the Ohgamis are able to use their spiritual power as shrine guardians. You and I are always reborn into one of those families, and the Necks of Orochi are members of those bloodlines who have a deep-seated resentment for the world."

"So Mom or Dad might...have been an Orochi?"

Chikane nodded.

"Yes; at least one of them has to carry the mystical bloodlines--I suspect most people in Mahoroba do. So if they'd been resentful or fallen into despair, Yamata no Orochi _could_ have called them. But I don't see how anyone with you for a daughter could hold ill feeling towards the world."

"Me? You're the one who's good at everything, Chikane: school, athletics, student council; if we weren't miko you'd have a brilliant future." _Oh, geez, I said "we,"_ she thought an instant later, realizing that wasn't quite accurate. Chikane didn't notice her slip, though, or maybe just chose to ignore it.

"They're proud of me as parents, but it's you who makes them feel loved." She shrugged. "To me, our family is just...a place I happen to occupy for a short time; to you they're a family. I _respect_ Mother and Father for being good people and raising us well, but you _love_ them as a daughter does."

Himeko felt herself blushing furiously.

"Chikane..."

"Now, though, I think we should stop embarrassing Reverend Ohgami with personal revelations. Shall we continue?"

Himeko nodded, and Ohgami led the way across the threshold.

"This cave is sacred ground," he said, "kept sealed by the Ohgami Shrine. Only by following the proper path can anyone find it, except one of the priestesses, whose connection to Ame no Murakumo is so strong that it cannot be tricked by simple ritual barriers."

"That's another good reason why Reiko probably isn't aware of the shrine's presence. She couldn't find it on her own. Unless knowledge of the shrine was passed down in the Himemiya family, then there's no reason for her to even suspect its existence. Although, as an Orochi she could find the area if she knew to look for it and break the barriers by force."

Himeko wasn't really listening to her sister's speculations, being all too distracted by her own thoughts. The cave walls seemed to be pressing in around her, looming up as if they were massive weights ready to fall and crush her. She wasn't claustrophobic; this was something else, though still a threatening weight in her own mind it was not the weight of stone but of memory.

_This was where it happened._

Reverend Ohgami lit a torch, its dull orange flame replacing the flow of sunlight as they descended deeper into the cave.

_This was where Chikane..._

Himeko shook her head forcefully.

_No!_ She would _not_ think of it that way. It had hurt, yes, and it had been terrifying while it happened, really more from the sudden change in Chikane from kind and supportive to threatening and cruel than from the actual violation. But she understood why Chikane had done it: to try and protect her from further Orochi attack by removing her blood's power, and also to use the blood from Himeko's first time to prepare to summon Ame no Murakumo so that all Himeko had to do was wish for the God of Swords to descend, and yet again to give Himeko a reason to hate Chikane and kill her in the final battle. In two of those three goals she'd failed, most especially the third one, but that was the weakness of plans born in despair rather than reality.

Because there was a fourth thing, Himeko thought. Chikane...had been expressing her love and desire for Himeko openly for the first time, in the only way that her misguided, guilt-ridden mind could believe such feelings _could_ be expressed.

No, coming to this cave again did carry a heavy burden of past memories with it, but they weren't echoes of pain and fear long since put aside. They were the memories of seeing her beloved in torment. Tears stung her eyes as she thought, _I will never, never ever let Chikane feel that way again. No matter how hard it is or how much it hurts, I will always make sure she knows how I feel about her_.

Realizing that Chikane, too, was probably recalling some of the same memories, she hurried forward and when Chikane had fallen a couple of steps behind Ohgami, Himeko leaned in and flicked her tongue against Chikane's ear. Chikane spun, startled and wide-eyed, and Himeko gave her a teasing grin. Her sister stared at her for a couple of heartbeats, and then her expression softened.

"Silly," Chikane murmured under her breath. "And...thank you."

Himeko's smile grew.

"You're welcome."

They descended into the passage, going deeper into the heart of the mountain. Himeko thought it was odd that they'd call to a god enshrined on the moon from a spot deep inside the earth. On top of the mountain would have made more sense to her, somewhere reaching for the skies. Then again, when it came to ritual and magic she often didn't understand things. In truth, even when she had been the Solar Priestess it had often felt like she was just along for the ride. Strangely, she felt no confusion about the ritual they were about to perform; every word and movement seemed graven in her heart.

_I guess if you do something through a few dozen lifetimes it kinda sinks in, huh?_

Eventually, the passageway widened out into a cave. A series of prayer gates arched over the stone path as it progressed into the cavern, forming a boundary between the path and the sacred precincts. On the far side, the cavern floor was covered over by a large lake of black water that only dully threw back the light from the priest's torch. The extension of the passage jutted out into the lake like a pier, ending directly beneath a massive boulder that descended from the cave ceiling like a stalactite. The _shimenawa_ tied around it made it look like the boulder was the _kami_ enshrined here, but Himeko knew that wasn't quite right. She wanted to ask, since she was sure that Chikane and Reverend Ohgami would both know, but she was embarrassed by her own ignorance.

_Some shrine maiden I am!_ The thought stung at her. _I can't even remember the names of things!_ Maybe that was why she wasn't a genuine miko any more. Sometimes, after all, it seemed that her only qualification for being part of this was her closeness to Chikane. _Last time...I started acting on my own and changing things. Maybe...maybe Ame no Murakumo just got sick of my blundering?_

She wished that she knew the answer. Part of her just wanted to turn and leave, to end what seemed more and more like a farce with every step, but she didn't. She couldn't abandon Chikane, regardless of the cost to herself. Himeko loved her so much that it scared her sometimes. The choices she'd made, she knew, weren't exactly normal.

Refusing rebirth in the restored world, condemning her own soul to imprisonment for the interval between cycles just so she could be with Chikane?

Choosing to be reincarnated as twin sisters so that even from birth they never had to spend a single day apart?

No, Himeko was too honest with herself to deny it. If Chikane asked something, needed something of her, she would defy fate or the gods or any kind of suffering to try to give it. That was all there was to it.

Reverend Ohgami lit the lamps mounted along the passage sides, causing the cavern to come alight with a glow eerily brighter than the two lanterns should have shed. The water stirred, small waves lapping at the edges of the stone pier.

The _tamagushi_ were there already, in rests at the base of the first prayer gate. Chikane took one of the swordlike wooden wands and Himeko the other. Chikane extended a hand to her.

"Are you ready?"

Himeko placed her hand in her sister's and nodded. It wasn't _quite_ a lie; she was willing to act even if not prepared for it. Together as one, they passed through the first _torii_. Chikane stepped past smoothly, but Himeko felt something as they breached the boundary, a nebulous force that seemed to push at her as she entered the gate, then dragged at her as she emerged.

"C-Chikane, are you sure this is going to be okay?"

The next gate was worse, the force more tangible, the pressure on her body stronger. It was enough to make her stumble as she passed through, though she caught her balance before falling.

"Himeko, are you all right?"

"It's these boundaries. I can feel them; they're resisting me. They don't want to let me pass."

"But in that case they should block you completely. That's what the barriers are for."

"Maybe it's the vestments?" Himeko suggested. "They have their own power drawn from Ame no Murakumo, so maybe the boundaries recognize the outfit but not the person wearing it?"

"Or they remember the past but not the present." Chikane shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I've danced to Ame no Murakumo's will enough; I won't be stayed by this." Her hand squeezed Himeko's more tightly as they approached the third and final gate, and she raised the _tamagushi_. A silver glow shone from the symbol on her back; unlike normal clothing the Lunar Priestess's vestments did not seem to hinder the flow of light at all. Chikane brought the ritual wand down in a slashing motion, and the hindering force seemed to part and roll back, offering Himeko no opposition as she stepped through. They walked the last few feet to stand beneath the great stone.

"D-do you really think this will work?"

"It has to, Himeko. If I'm going to protect you and this world from the Orochi, I need to truly be the Lunar Priestess, not a phantom of myself. And perhaps this will also help to find...your successor."

She was having a steadily harder time discussing it, Himeko realized. The search for the Solar Priestess made the blonde think of Reverend Ohgami, and she looked back up the path to where he stood. He could not pass the gates--no man could, unless by breaking the barrier through sheer force--but he awaited the outcome of Chikane's attempt, disapproving but resigned to it.

"Shall we begin?" Chikane released Himeko's hand.

"O-okay."

There was, at least, no way she could mistake the _form_ of what was to happen. The words, the movements of the ritual were engraved in Himeko's soul, giving the lie at least to the idea that she had never been Solar Priestess, that her past lives with Chikane were a fantasy. Not that she'd doubted, the bond between them being the only thing that she was still sure of in all this, but proof was good to have. Chikane was more analytical, less intuitive than she was, and proof was sometimes needed to make her see.

_And yet, Chikane hasn't once asked me if I remember what to do._

Had the thought simply not occurred to her? Chikane assumed things sometimes, jumped to wrong conclusions. But that wasn't usually about this kind of thing, but about more basic, how-she-saw-the-world issues. Not about the practical details of a task at had. So maybe it was because when Himeko was offering all her protests as to why this was a bad idea, she hadn't mentioned what would be a sound, practical objection, so Chikane understood that she hadn't said anything because it wasn't a valid objection?

Or maybe the topic had come up in conversation months or even years ago and Chikane had simply remembered Himeko's answers?

Or maybe...this was so important to Chikane (why?) that she hadn't _allowed_ herself to ask the question--to even have the conscious thought?

So many possibilities, some utterly innocent, some laden with emotion. Himeko didn't know which it was or how to find out or even if it was something that mattered. It was just something that seemed off to her, and she noticed it.

_Probably because this all seems off to me! Me being here, doing this._

Which brought her thoughts full circle again. This was why she tried to leave this kind of thinking to Chikane; when Himeko tried it she went round and round and didn't get anywhere. She trusted her heart, her intuition and emotions to guide her. After all, if she'd been _analytical_ in her last life she'd have concluded that Chikane was a ruthless, evil monster dedicated to Orochi, cut her down, and quite probably wished for a new world without her in it. It was only because she trusted in her heart that Chikane was a good person--a person she could love--that she'd found the strength to refuse Souma's logic, Ame no Murakumo's fate, Chikane's attempts at manipulation.

_So what does my intuition tell me is right?_

She walked across the pier and took up a position opposite Chikane, about ten feet away so the tip of the great rock was right over the midpoint between them. She raised the _tamagushi_ as Chikane raised hers, the girls mirror images of one another. Her eyes met her sister's, finding a question in them, and she nodded once, sharply, in reply.

-X X X-

The dark sun writhed and burned in the eternally violet sky. Within the sealed space of Orochi it was always sunset, thought Abe, for it was so for the world, the last moments of life before the eternal night fell.

The mists had rolled back from beneath the eight _torii_, revealing that the prayer gates did not simply grow in space but were affixed to an octagonal structure. The shrine of the eight gates was largely devoid of ornamentation, of signs of faith.

This was fitting, thought Abe. The Orochi had no faith. Only pain, and despair, and _hate_.

He knelt in the precise center of the shrine on the bare wooden floor, the eclipse that was not an eclipse burning above him, reaching out to the spirit of malice. Abe knew that of the Necks, he was the most devout, the most purely dedicated to Yamata no Orochi. This was not pride; even they would have admitted it. The Second, Fourth, and Fifth were too caught up in their own pain, their own vanity, and lashed out at the world like children having a temper tantrum. The Sixth went beyond this but was burdened by the limits of her own mind. The First was too enthralled by the _now_, of _being_ Orochi. The Seventh had embraced the nihilism of the dark sun but chained it within his own will, the regimented logic of his mind.

Only Abe, alone among the Necks, had fully given way to the despair. The man, the self, was empty. The ego of vanity was absent. The sense of self that gave rise to the will was gone. The man had been destroyed in the futility of his wife's death, his last personal debts paid on the bodies of his tormentors. Now there was only Orochi. He surrendered himself to it utterly, letting the voice of his own pain be drowned in the malice of untold billions.

-X X X-

_"The brave and mighty Susanou no Mikoto."_

Chikane felt the power surge up at once as they began, not even at the first words but before that, at the act of will that called the start of the ritual. The air in the heart of the shrine grew heavy with power, a heat rising from the water, descending from the great stone. She felt her own power rising to match it, the power of the Lunar Priestess calling to its sealed half.

The seal was a door, barring her way. Why it existed she had no idea. To test the priestesses' dedication? To serve as some sort of balancing force against the restraints on the gods of Orochi? She could not say. This ritual was a key. Turn it in the lock and the door would open. So much easier when she'd been Orochi herself; no key was necessary when one could simply break in the door.

_"God of Takemi Katana."_

-X X X-

_"God of Iwatsutsu no O."_

The movements of the two girls were like a dance, the graceful motion of arms, of hands, the way even the billowing sleeves and trailing jackets blended in, forming part of the imagery. Light and dark, sun and moon, a perfect harmonious balance was in them.

Reverend Ohgami had expected as much from Tsukuyo. What surprised him was Hikari. Ordinarily she was earnest and good-hearted, but graceless and clumsy. Now, her every motion was an exact mirror of her twin's, performed in unison without the slightest lag time or hesitation. Their voices were as one as they chanted, calling upon the _kami_ who sheltered and supported Ame no Murakumo.

He no longer doubted--and there _had_ been doubts, though left unspoken--that Hikari had been the Solar Priestess in previous cycles. This ritual was a part of her, and in it he could see hints of what had once been, the light she had once shed as _Hi no miko_.

It made him wonder all the more why that role had been taken from her.

_"God of Kanayama Hiko."_

-X X X-

_"God of Kanayama Hime."_

Himeko could feel the power swell, could feel the lightning as it sparked in the air. The pressure was almost unbearable. She knew that there was supposed to be an answer from within herself, the power of the Solar Priestess calling to what lay beyond the seal. There was no such call now, nothing arising from within to balance the terrible pressure without, only Himeko's own will and the ghosts of the past that inhabited the vestments she wore.

She began to tremble as the pressure grew, the gathering power swelled. How long could she bear it? Even if her mind found the strength to keep on, how long could her body endure?

_"God of Tsurugi no Ikusa."_

-X X X-

_"God of Tate no Ikusa_._"_

Himeko was weakening.

Chikane could sense it, sense the imbalance in the power being summoned, how it threatened to rage out of control. She wanted to stop, to pull back, but it was too late for that. If they hesitated now, the gathered force would be released explosively. Injury was likely, and for one without any magic of her own like Himeko, death was quite possible.

Because of her. Because of her insistence that they proceed with this rite. Because she needed her full power as a priestess to protect, and ultimately restore.

Because she'd hoped against hope that if they could breach the seal they'd find beyond it not some but all of the Solar Priestess's power, that Himeko would be restored to herself by the sudden influx of divine force.

Because the alternative was too terrible to bear.

If Himeko was not the Solar Priestess, but Chikane had to go on as Lunar Priestess...

She couldn't think about that. The consequences were...

As lightning crackled around them, crawling across the surface of the great stone above and arcing to the water, a trembling began to creep into Chikane's body as well.

But not from the external forces pressing upon her.

_"Along with the powers of the eight million gods."_

-X X X-

_"I wish for the revival of Ame no Murakumo."_

The ritual pounded through the ether. Yamata no Orochi could sense that its foes were acting, and so Yuujirou Abe felt it through the communion he shared with his god.

_They act! They act to unseal the God of Swords! They strive to shatter the barriers while I lie chained!_

Abe felt the god's cries within his mind. Orochi's hate and fury was as his own. The eight gods had to rise up, to claim the blood of a pure priestess so that they could join as one and lay waste to all that was, to end a world that was hopelessly, irredeemably corrupted by the stinking ill-will of humanity, a plague on creation that could only be cured by absolute eradication.

There had to be a way, somehow, to free the chained darkness and match the steps of their adversaries.

A footfall brushed the floor behind him. Words fell softly from lips. There was no need for them to be audible to any but their speaker, for they matched those that reverberated through the will of Orochi.

_"Release the God of Susanou."_

-X X X-

_"The atoning life shall be driven out."_

Hikari was faltering.

Reverend Ohgami could not deny it. At first it had appeared that Tsukuyo's will had triumphed over all his doubts. Hikari had approached the shrine past boundaries he himself could not cross. She had not been struck down by the God of Swords. She had known the ritual as if she had studied it for her entire life.

But now...

There was pain in her voice. Her whole body shook. Every movement she made was a halting thing, an effort made against terrific pressure. While the priest could not see Tsukuyo's face most of the time, Hikari's was almost in full view and had become a mask of determination. Perspiration streamed down her skin, her teeth were clenched, and words forced through them when necessary, her eyes burned with an intensity that he could scarcely believe.

He'd known the twins nearly all their lives. Hikari and his own daughter had become friends almost from the first day of kindergarten. In all those years, Ohgami had thought of her much as he would regard a piece of candy: she was a kind, sweet, obliging girl, one whom even if she didn't observe the proper forms of politeness always captured the respectful spirit that was meant by them, but one with nothing hard at the center.

Marika had never gone along with that assessment. Once, when she was fifteen and they, in the way of fathers and daughters, had been arguing over something, he'd foolishly accused Hikari of being empty-headed and weak, a pointless friend. He'd apologized later, but in the heat of the moment Marika had snapped back that he was a blind fool if he couldn't see that Hikari was the strongest person she knew.

Now, he understood something of what she'd meant.

They pivoted, turned, raised their wands, and struck as if cleaving some opponent that stood in the center between them.

_"Shinchoku."_

-X X X-

As the last word left her lips, Himeko gave way to the forces bearing down on her. With a whimper of pain she dropped to her knees. The important thing, though, was that she'd gotten through it, completed the rite.

As she succumbed to unconsciousness, she had no idea if the explosive roar she heard was from the energies being released or just her own mind giving way to the pain.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: Shinto terms are all taken from Wikipedia. The chant for the ritual summoning is taken word-for-word from the anime subtitles. The description of the hidden shrine comes from the manga, of course (as do several of the previous-cycle plot events Himeko alludes to). And the fact that the Orochi shrine actually has a main body instead of just being the eight gates is also another manga/anime difference (if this keeps up, these author's notes are going to end up cataloguing everything that changes between the versions!)._


	10. Aftermath

He did not know how long he'd lain there. Time meant nothing without consciousness. Had he only been stunned by the blast, downed but a few seconds? Or more than that, genuinely knocked out? Ohgami's head throbbed in pain and his body ached all over. The explosion of light had sent him sprawling.

_I warned her,_ he thought bitterly. _It was not supposed to happen like this._

Ohgami slowly pushed himself up into a kneeling position. He himself was not the only one to suffer damage. The three prayer gates that had formed the boundary around the enclosed area of the hidden shrine were wrecked. The outermost was merely broken, its crosspiece dangling to partially block the path; the middle had come apart in chunks; and the innermost was simply gone but for the two stumps jutting out of the floor.

The great stone, too, the _yorishino_ of the shrine, was damaged; a zigzag crack ran from ceiling to point, narrow to be sure but with space showing distinctly between the edges. The cavern walls and roof, however, were unmarked; the release of energies had been primarily spiritual and had done their worst to only such physical objects as were themselves infused with spiritual energies.

Beneath the stone, Tsukuyo knelt, cradling her sister against her chest. Hikari's body was limp, her eyes closed, her hair trailing down like a veil, the bright red ribbon she always wore half undone and spilling across her shoulder like a trail of blood.

Worried, the priest pushed himself to his feet and began to approach them. His steps were wavering, pain and dizziness clouding his movements. He had no difficulty passing the broken _torii_, though. The barriers they supported were as broken as the gates themselves were.

"Himeko," Tsukuyo was saying, her voice scarcely above a whisper but with a terrible urgency in it. "Himeko...Himeko!"

The blonde girl's eyelids fluttered and slowly raised, revealing eerily bright violet irises.

"Did...did it work?" she asked hoarsely.

Tsukuyo reached down with the hand that wasn't supporting her sister and picked up something from the ground: an antique sword, its sheath the same purple as the trim on her robe, and ornamented with gold. _Tsuki no miko no tachi_. The Lunar Priestess Blade.

They'd done it.

Ohgami didn't understand how it was possible, what had made the ritual work with only a single priestess. There was no sign of the matching red sword--Hikari had not been miraculously restored to priestesshood--but undeniably the seal on Tsukuyo's powers had been broken.

"I'm...glad," Hikari whispered, then let her eyes fall back shut.

"Himeko!" Tsukuyo screamed. "_Himeko!_"

-X X X-

The eye of Orochi seethed and boiled. The clouds rolled, swirling angrily, and flickers of heat lightning rumbled among them. The dark god was displeased, and his servants did not know why.

It was surprising, this threatening storm, because the Necks believed themselves to be successful. They had scoured Mahoroba for the shrines housing their respective gods, and had located the complete set of eight. None of the encounters, however, had resulted in an unsealing. The eight heads of Orochi remained locked away.

"Okay, so we've found 'em. What now?" Kei drawled.

"We break the seals, claim our power, and destroy the priestesses," Reiko replied.

"How?" he said bluntly.

"I hate to agree with that uncouth boy over there, but that is the key question," remarked Saori.

"And I hate to agree with the whore, but yeah," Kei snapped back.

"_What_ did you call me?"

"That's the way it is, right? Uncouth boys like me don't bother prettying something up to save your ego."

Saori glared at him, making a growling sound deep in her throat, somewhere between a snarl and a hiss. A shadow seemed to gather around her; sharp clicking sounds began to echo. Kei's own Shadow began to form.

Ozawa snapped his fingers, the sound like a thunderclap.

"Enough! We have a mission to accomplish. Your petty differences can wait. The question remains: how do we unseal the full powers of our gods? Does anyone have anything productive to add?"

Reiko stared at the former soldier. _She_ was the leader of the Orochi, not the Seventh Neck. His rebelliousness grated on her, his desire to put his own will ahead of the way of Orochi. And it galled her all the more that he was so often right, that early on it had been her own hesitation that enabled him to become a second leader.

"Abe was supposed to be seeking that way. He hoped to seek the will of Orochi to determine it."

Kei snorted.

"More like hide than seek. The holy-roller salaryman isn't here, in case you haven't noticed."

"No...he isn't," Reiko mused. Her eyes swept the group.

"This is absurd," Hirata said. "We talk and talk, we spin our wheels, we do nothing. We accomplish nothing. I prefer to take steps."

"Steps? What steps? We have no idea what we're doing."

"When you have nothing," the artist said with a smile, "then you have nothing to lose."

He leaned back, falling from the _torii_, and plunged into the mists.

-X X X-

Chikane's hands were white-knuckled, clenched around the sheath of her sword as she sat at Himeko's bedside. Her sister hadn't regained consciousness yet; they'd brought her back to the Ohgami house, but this wasn't something that could be cured by prayer or magic, which was why Himeko was now lying in a bed at Kamiyatate University Hospital.

The sword lay across Chikane's lap. For some reason, no one had tried to take it from her or indeed even commented on it. The priestess vestments were easily explained by the place they'd come from; what more natural than two girls in miko costume at a shrine? The sword was something different, though.

Ordinarily her mind would have been working things through, going over the question for whatever the answers might reveal about herself and the powers she possessed in this life. Ordinarily. Now she had barely given it a second thought.

"Himeko..." she murmured. How long had it been? One hour? Two? All she could think about was the blonde girl who lay fragile and broken on the bed before her. _If she...If she dies..._

She'd seen Himeko die before, and that always by her own hand. Only one instance was strong enough to fully linger, that from the time before the previous cycle, but it was more than enough. But this was different. Even then, no matter how terrible it was, there had also been hope, the knowledge that when their next lives came, they could find each other again. Solar and Lunar Priestesses, destined to an eternity of meetings and partings.

But if Himeko died now, as an ordinary person, then there was not even that slim hope. If she were to enter the cycle of ordinary lives, ordinary souls, her existence might be drawn far from Chikane in physical space, or even in time, with no guarantee that they would ever be together again.

_I'm the one that has done this,_ she thought bitterly._ I put your life at risk for myself, my pride, my fear._

"Himeko..."

"Chi-Chikane?"

Chikane flinched.

"Himeko? Himeko!" she exclaimed as her sister's eyes fluttered open.

"I guess I kinda messed up," she said.

"Messed--?"

"The ritual. I couldn't do my part. It worked, though, so I guess it's okay."

"Forget the ritual; I'm worried about you!" She pressed the call button to summon the doctors.

"I'm...sorry I worried you."

"Himeko! Don't apologize!" That just made it worse, as if a knife was twisting within her.

"But it's my weakness that landed me here, not any fault of yours."

"Only because I insisted on you participating!"

"But if I hadn't urged you to go out and protect people, you wouldn't have needed the power so badly."

A giggle cut the urgency, and Chikane turned to see Marika Ohgami framed in the doorway.

"You two are so cute!"

Chikane glared, but in had no effect on the girl, probably because Himeko was grinning at the same time.

"Seriously, you were probably both at fault, knowing you, so why don't you just go ahead, kiss, and make up?"

Himeko giggled, then winced as the movement apparently made her head hurt.

"Ouch!"

"Geez, I'm sorry."

"It's okay." She rolled her head to the side on the pillow and looked up at Chikane while she added, "I like your idea though, Marika." A little smile played on her lips.

"All right," Chikane said, and gave her a little kiss on the forehead. "Get better if you want more."

"Incentive!" Marika chirped.

Before they could say anything else, they were swept out of the room by the arriving medical staff and consigned to the waiting area. It felt strange to be sitting next to Marika. The plain fact was, Chikane was always at a loss with Himeko's best friend precisely _because_ Marika was Himeko's best friend. She couldn't be standoffish or push her away because it would hurt Himeko, and she couldn't fall back on the elegant princess routine because Himeko and Marika's closeness gave the Ohgami girl the perspective of an insider. Yet for Chikane's own sake she didn't particularly like Marika as a companion, something not helped by the recurrent flarings of jealousy. Chikane knew it was petty and small of her, but she _was_ jealous, not in the sense of romantic distrust but that the moments Himeko spent with Marika were time she wasn't speaking with Chikane.

Self-reproach over that feeling, as well as the manners ingrained in her to behave civilly, made her speak up.

"I suppose that you heard about what happened?"

Marika nodded.

"Some of it. Aunt Minako called me and said that you'd been doing something priestessy and that Hikari had been hurt doing it, and that she'd been brought here as a precaution. She's going to be okay, right? I mean, she was smiling and talking..."

"She'd just woken up before you came in. The preliminary examination suggested bruising, shock, and a possible concussion. Some of it is from being thrown down to the stone floor, and some from the energies involved in the ritual of unsealing; supernatural forces are hard to measure in conventional medical terms."

"I bet! But she's okay now?"

Chikane sighed.

"I think so. I _hope_ so. But..."

"No buts! She's tough, Hikari is. Soft and cuddly outside, but she's kind of like that sword you've got there. It can flex when under stress, and so won't break, and neither will she," Marika said peppily. "So cheer up! You'll be back together again in no time."

_But for how long?_

-X X X-

"It's falling apart on us," Akemi said quietly. "Eight spirits held together by despair, hate, and suffering, eight broken people who are filled with misery and malice. We were not meant to work together, people like us."

"We are Orochi," Reiko snapped. "If Abe was here, he would say that chaos is our fundamental nature. That doesn't mean that we can't work together to get what we all want. We've found the Lunar Priestess, we've found the sealed gods, and all that in only a few days. Our victory is as inevitable as the sunset."

"Stirring," Saori said dryly. "But do we have any idea how we're going to bring about this inevitability?"

"Yes. Ozawa, Akemi, I want you to try to find Abe. We need his knowledge, the strength of his communion with Yamata no Orochi. Saori, keep working on the problem of the sealed shrines. At the least, see if we can work out which shrines correspond with which gods. Kei--"

"Yes, ma'am!" he snapped with a mocking salute. "Ready for my orders, ma'am!"

"Go bring back Hirata. If he's thought of something useful, we should all know about it. If he hasn't, then he should be helping the rest of us."

The Second Neck cracked his knuckles.

"Damn, you keep giving me jobs I like and I might forget to get mad that you're ordering me around."

"May I ask what role you have planned for yourself?" Ozawa asked, his challenge more controlled and therefore more serious.

The black sword of Take no Sukunazuchi formed in Reiko's hand.

"As befits the heiress of the Himemiya clan, I am going to pay a social call."

-X X X-

"She's going to be fine," the doctor said. He was smiling warmly, a man genuinely happy to be sharing good news. "Our tests revealed that there had been no concussion. At this point all she needs is rest. Miss Asamiya has a headache, but regular over-the-counter pain medication will be adequate; I see no need for something stronger. I'd like her to stay here overnight for observation, but that's just as a precautionary measure."

"Thank the gods," Chikane said, and meant every word of it.

"Can we talk to her?" Marika asked.

He nodded.

"For a little while. As I said, what she needs now is rest to help recover from the shock. It would be better if you went in one at a time; that would tire her less."

"We'll do that; thank you."

Marika smiled happily as the doctor moved on to his next duty.

"There! Now that ought to put a smile on your face, Tsukuyo." She looked over at Chikane. "Yep."

Chikane was in fact beaming with relief, she was so glad. Himeko would be fine! She'd made a foolish mistake out of her own fears, but it had somehow turned out all right.

"Well, you'd better get in there before either one of you pops from twin withdrawal," Marika continued. "Love before friendship, and all."

Chikane was about to agree when she felt something like an icy current flowing through the back of her neck. _It's coming_, she thought, but forced herself to remain calm. Telling Marika would be one thing, but the petite girl was nearly as abysmal at concealing her feelings as Himeko. Even if she tried to keep it back Himeko would notice, and Chikane didn't want to worry her, not now, not after she'd just put her beloved at risk.

So she lied.

Smoothly, coolly, with all the shell of Miya-sama serenity she could manage, she said, "No, that's all right, Marika; you can go first."

"Me? But why? You're her--" Marika broke it off since they were in a semi-public area and said, "You're her sister, after all."

Chikane smiled faintly and shook her head.

"I don't intend to go home tonight. You can see her, then share the good news with your family. I'll go second and take as much time as I'm allowed."

Marika frowned, looking a little dubious.

"Well, okay, I guess. If you're sure that's how you want it..."

"I also want a chance to make myself presentable. I've been crying too much while waiting," Chikane pretended to admit. This time Marika wagged a finger at her.

"There is nothing more irritating than hearing the prettiest girl in town complaining about her appearance," she teased. "You know darned well that you're one of those annoying people who can cry buckets without getting all blotchy and sniffly." She turned, waving, and walked down the hall towards Himeko's room. Chikane waited just until she'd gone inside, then rose from her chair and went the other way to the exit stairs.

-X X X-

Himeko looked up, smiling, when the door opened, but her face fell slightly when she saw that it was Marika.

"Where's Chikane? Is she okay?" Belatedly she realized that it must seem like she was dismissing her friend as irrelevant. "I'm sorry. That must have sounded really awful."

Marika chuckled.

"Nah, it's okay. I haven't been your best friend all these years without getting used to your sister complex, Juliet."

"Juliet?"

"Romeo and? Y'know, the play by Shakespeare?"

"Oh." Himeko blushed, a little embarrassed. She was horrid at foreign literature, but even so she should have caught _that_ reference! "Wait, is that how you see us?"

"Star-crossed lovers? You bet. When the hands of the whole world are against you, the will of the gods themselves seem to conspire against your happiness...It's like something out of a manga. Though I have to say, it's a lot less fun teasing you since it turned out you and Tsukuyo really are reincarnated souls who've loved each other down through the centuries."

Himeko giggled, though it made her head hurt a bit. The doctor had given her some pills for that, but they hadn't started working yet.

"You're...odd, Marika."

"I know," her friend responded cheerily and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "It's all part of my charm."

"I like your new hair."

"Really? Thanks; I had it done this morning." She'd replaced the blue-and-violet braid with green, starting with a deep forest color in the front with bangs puffed up into near-vertical spikes, shading through various hues until the very back, worn long and loose, was a brilliant mint-green. "I guess I felt like I needed a little bit of spring before winter rolls around."

She stopped and her face became serious.

"Hikari, what's going on? Aunt Minako said that Dad took the two of you to do some ritual, which I guess explains why Tsukuyo is dressed up like a miko, but that's all. Now you're in the hospital and she's walking around with a sword. Which, I may add, nobody seems to notice, which is just weird, but...what's going on?"

"Chikane and I performed the ritual to unseal the full powers of the Solar and Lunar Priestess. It worked, which is how she received the Lunar Priestess Blade."

"Wait, but I thought you weren't the Solar Priestess now?"

"I'm not, but I've done the ritual a zillion times before so I knew it by heart. I guess that was enough. But...um, I guess I didn't do a great job holding up my end of things after all."

"You're talking over my head, Hikari."

Himeko giggled.

"That's something I don't hear very often!"

"Enjoy it while it lasts. Now explain. Use small words."

"Well...um...it's like..." She struggled for an analogy, wishing she could just tell Marika to ask Chikane. "Oh! It's like when we moved in to our dorm room?"

"You spent all day having sex?" Marika joked.

"Geez!" Himeko exclaimed, her face flushing. "Why do you always tease me about that?"

"Simple. You have by far the best sex life of any of my friends and I'm jealous as heck of you," she said, smiling brightly.

"Why? You're straight."

"I know, but I'm working on an orgasms-per-day basis, here."

"I am so not having this conversation," Himeko groaned, and Marika had to burst out laughing.

"Geez, _you_," Himeko added.

"I promise to be good. Go on, tell me how it's like moving day."

"Well...it's like, if there's a heavy box that it took both of us to lift, so I'd hold one end and Chikane the other. That's how the ritual works except it's not a box but the power of Ame no Murakumo. Only because I'm not the Solar Priestess now, I wasn't strong enough to hold up my end, and I dropped the box on my foot. Something like that, anyway."

"Okay, I follow that. But now Tsukuyo's power is unsealed completely, so she can summon Ame no Murakumo and kick the Orochi's butt?"

Himeko shook her head.

"Not quite. It takes both priestesses to summon Ame no Murakumo. One sheds the blood of the other and consecrates the offering to the god, and the one whose blood was shed then prays for the god to come."

"Darn." Then, Marika brightened and added, "Well, maybe at least she'll have an easier time finding the other priestess? Whomever it is, she's probably wondering where that sword came from. And then you can figure out a way to get your job back and everything will be all right."

"I hope so. I honestly don't mind it so much, not being Solar Priestess, but I don't want to be separated from Chikane, not ever again."

"Maybe that's what this is about. If Chikane kills that other Solar Priestess in the ritual to recreate the world, then doesn't it mean that Chikane's soul will be returned to this life? But you'll still be here, and so you can live out your lives happily together."

Himeko smiled at the idea of growing old together with Chikane. It was a happy thought. Ame no Murakumo wasn't really kind, though, or for that matter cruel. The God of Swords seemed to be more concerned with necessity than human feelings--the lives of six billion rather than two. Or maybe it was necessary that Chikane get this kind of happy ending so she could continue in her appointed task?

She wished that Chikane was there, so that they could get it out in the open between them. Himeko would have to talk with her about it when she came in; the blonde firmly resolved that she wasn't going to be put off or distracted.

Marika had done a good job lifting her spirits, but she really did want Chikane with her. Where _was_ she?

-X X X-

The lights in the hospital parking lot were the kind that shone a ghostly blue-white rather than a warm yellow. Cars were scattered only sparsely about; apparently the people of Mahoroba were presently in good health. _Himeko would be happy about that_, Chikane thought.

"You can come out now," she announced into the stillness. "I can tell that you're here."

"Can you?"

Chikane spun to her left, looking up. The figure stood on top of one of the lampposts but rather than being dramatic the bright light beneath made her seem no more than a silhouette.

"How very interesting, Tsukuyo."

Reiko Himemiya dropped down easily, the thirty-foot descent apparently of no matter to the Orochi.

_She's changed_, Chikane thought. When they'd fought in the classroom Reiko had been shaky, swept away by emotion and despair. Now she was different, more poised, seemingly confident. The power of the dark god was intoxicating, Chikane knew all too well. Perhaps Reiko had found the will within herself to master that power the way Tsubasa, the previous First Neck, had done.

"You couldn't the first time."

"I hadn't awakened, then."

"I see."

Reiko smiled.

"I finally understand what it was, you know. That drew me to you? I didn't love you or desire you. It truly was _akogare_, purely admiration. Everything about you was what I wanted to be: beautiful, elegant, brilliant, poised, respected, and above all confident. Secure in myself."

Chikane wanted to laugh. _Me? Secure in myself?_ Reiko had been utterly deluded by her facade, mistaking veneer for substance.

"And in what way," she replied icily, "do you think I could possibly care about the thoughts of an Orochi?"

Reiko flinched.

"Bitch," she hissed out. "Oh, you bitch."

Her Shadow came to her hand, the black sword crackling along its length with violet lightning.

"I worshipped you for years."

"I never asked for that."

"Didn't you, _Miya-sama_? Isn't that _exactly_ what you craved? Do you have a single friend? Someone other than your sister you'd lift a finger to help because you want to instead of because it was proper?"

"Yamata no Orochi's First Neck lectures me on morality? This from the prime minion of the God of Destruction?"

Reiko's face twisted fiercely.

"Yes, _damn it_. Because it's people like you who _deserve_ to be brought down. You've _earned_ your annihilation by making the world into what it is." She brought her left hand around to take the sword in a two-handed grip. "I'd come here to just talk with you, to settle the past between us, but not any more. This time I'm going to finish you off. Then the past won't make a difference to anyone."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: Well, here we are, halfway through my outline! Thanks for sticking with it so long, and with any kind of luck things will keep on regularly through to the end. I have to admit, Marika is my favorite character to write; she and Minako can both get away with saying things that Chikane and Himeko are simply too straightlaced (or take too seriously) to mock or snark about._


	11. The Burdens of Destiny

A hawk perched on the limb of a cherry tree, its talons firmly gripping a branch that seemed too thin to support its weight. In the deep shadows, all of its feathers looked as black as pitch, the only sparks of color about it seeming to come from the depths of its eyes. Below it, spreading out on the hillside, was a stretch that had been cleared and flattened by human hands for their use. From there lights gleamed: the blue frost-lights of illumination, the cruel brilliance of amethyst, and a pale gold that seemed as cold and remote as the moon.

The hawk sat. And watched. And waited.

-X X X-

Reiko slashed the black sword down in a sharp motion as if cutting down an enemy. At the moment when the tip pointed towards Tsukuyo, a blast of violet-tinted energy launched itself towards her. The Lunar Priestess had swept her sword from its sheath in an _iai_ draw, though, and the blade pulled the attack to itself, parrying the bolt and sending fragments shattering.

"I'm not going to run this time," Tsukuyo said. She extended her hand, pointing the blade at Reiko in a gesture that seemed like a formal challenge. "If you think that you can defeat me, then come at me now."

"That sword...it's not just--"

"I am a shrine maiden of the God of Swords. This blade is as much a part of me as the Shadow of Take no Sukunazuchi is of you, Orochi."

Her gaze was cold and unmoving as it fixed on Reiko. The First Neck tried to match the intensity of it, but found herself starting to tremble, her will evaporating.

_It's just like always,_ she thought. _Just like how everyone thinks she's the princess and I'm the hanger-on if they meet us together. If anyone was watching us, they'd think _she_ was the Orochi come to destroy _me_! Even at this...Even at this, she..._

"No!" she screamed. "No, damn it, you are _not_ doing this to me again! I am going to carve you out of my life forever, Lunar Priestess, and when you die, the world dies with you!"

Tsukuyo's expression did not change. It was cold and inhuman; she might have been carved from granite, the way she did not move. She wouldn't, Reiko knew. The Lunar Priestess was too strong to be pushed aside by mere words.

She would not break, and so she would have to be broken.

With a scream, Reiko leapt into the air. She released one hand from her sword and swept it along the flat of the blade, as if scooping up the energies that ran along it. She hurled violet fire down on Tsukuyo, the assault preceding her descent, sword swinging down to cleave the Lunar Priestess while she was coping with the first attack.

Only it didn't happen that way.

Tsukuyo sidestepped the hail of fire, then swept her sword across the edge of Reiko's. Pale gold light wreathed the blade, matching the dark energies of Reiko's black sword. With the supernatural forces canceling one another, Tsukuyo's precise stroke turned aside Reiko's wild one, and in the instant Reiko's feet touched the ground and she was adjusting her balance from the landing, Tsukuyo pivoted, carrying Reiko's sword out and away while simultaneously letting her deliver a crushing kick to the Orochi's ribs, left exposed while her sword arm was engaged. Reiko went over, crashing into the pavement with jarring force, but she rolled and came back to her feet.

The power of her dark god surged into her, soothing the pain of the blow just as it had healed her nose, which Tsukuyo had broken in the first fight. A bruise or two wouldn't even hamper her. She'd come off second-best in the exchange but it meant nothing for the outcome.

Didn't it?

The First Neck brought her sword up into a guard position. Tsukuyo faced her, again waiting for Reiko to make the first move. She did, lunging once, twice, both times having her attacks blocked with contemptuous ease, but the third time rather than finish the stroke she unleashed another blast of energy from the sword's tip--

--Only, Tsukuyo wasn't in front of it. The blast seared through empty air and struck a parked car, detonating it in a ball of flame. Tsukuyo had stepped in past her outstretched arm and drove the hilt of her sword into Reiko's belly. The Orochi gagged and choked, and Tsukuyo whipped the swordhilt up to crunch into her nose, breaking it _again_ and knocking Reiko over.

The Lunar Priestess cracked her foot into Reiko's wrist, sending the Shadow-sword skittering away across the parking lot. The First Neck could feel the blood streaming down over her lips and chin as she looked up at the girl she'd idolized nearly all her life. The car she'd blasted had turned into a cloud of billowing orange flame cradled in a metal shell, and the ruddy light painted Tsukuyp's face in golden-bronze. The tip of her sword pressed against Reiko's throat.

"Himeko has always felt sorry for you," Tsukuyo said, "so I'm going to tell you something that may give you some understanding. As one of the Necks of Orochi and heiress of the Himemiya family, are you aware of the legend of the Solar and Lunar Priestesses?"

"Of course!" Reiko spat back. "You fight against us, to summon Ame no Murakumo and prevent Yamata no Orochi from bringing destruction!"

"And that we are born into this world over and over again, reliving this fight through many lives every time your god rises?"

"Y-yes. What difference does it make? In the end, _this_ life is all that matters. We'll end your lives here and finish that cycle forever."

Tsukuyo smiled at her then, lips twisting up thinly, cruelly.

"Would it make a difference if I told you that in my previous life, my name was Chikane Himemiya?"

"_No!_" Reiko screamed in protest. Her hand whipped around, her palm cracking against the flat of Tsukuyo's sword to knock it away from her throat. She rolled in the opposite direction, heard the point strike off the asphalt, and rolled to her feet. The black sword manifested in her hand again--not flying to it, but just appearing, for it wasn't a physical object but a manifestation of a god's power--and came back at Tsukuyo. She swung wildly but furiously, infusing her power into every stroke so that the parries jarred the Lunar Priestess, making her give ground.

Reiko's advantage lasted only seconds, though, as Tsukuyo ducked a stroke, came up, grabbed Reiko's arm and spun her past, slamming the Orochi face-first into a minivan.

"_Yes._ I was the Himemiya heiress."

She torqued Reiko's arm until it broke; the sound of the bone snapping was audible. Reiko screamed.

"Of _course_ you aspired to be me. I was _raised_ to be what you sought after."

She hooked her foot around Reiko's ankle and slammed her to the ground.

"I am not that stupid fool any more! I am Orochi!" Reiko cried out. The blood had stopped; her nose was knitting itself back together. If she could only get a moment to gather herself...

Tsukuyo--no, Chikane--wouldn't give her that moment. She grabbed Reiko by the hair, hauled her to her feet, and drove her into the van again.

"So."

_Slam._

"Was."

_Slam._

"I."

Reiko's mind reeled, unable to comprehend.

"I was the Eighth Neck."

Reiko called her sword back to her left hand, tried to swing it, but the blow was clumsy and Chikane slashed her shoulder, disarming her again.

"You can't mean it..." Reiko forced out, her voice shaking.

"Don't I?"

Chikane glared at her contemptuously.

"I destroyed my family, my friends, people I had known since childhood."

The tip of her sword flashed out, slashing Reiko's other shoulder.

"I summoned the Gattai Orochi itself."

She slashed Reiko's left cheek.

"I drowned the cities of the world in wave and fire, storm and earthquake."

Next was Reiko's right cheek, but she barely even noticed the pain. Hot, wet tears clouded her vision, but they were tears of despair, not pain.

"You have spent every moment of your life, including this one now, trying--and failing--to become me."

"No! Nooooo!" Reiko wailed, and she hurled herself wildly at Chikane. She didn't even think of her weapon, but just flailed at her with her fists, wanting her to stop, to take it back. The Lunar Priestess an Orochi? It was unthinkable! And yet, this casual cruelty, a side she'd never before shown Reiko...

_Because I didn't matter enough to show it._

She fended Reiko off easily, flinging her back against the van, _still_ with that faint smile on her lips, damn her! It was almost a bad joke. Reiko had challenged her with the accusation that she'd gone through life without a single real friend, no connections at all besides her sister. She'd accused Chikane of being a failure because of it.

But that wasn't true at all. The face she showed Reiko now was the face of a girl who _liked_ things that way. The face of someone who could have become more of a monster than any of the Necks.

Idly, almost as an afterthought, Reiko wondered what it was that had held her in check.

Then, the Lunar Priestess Blade slashed across her belly and agony engulfed her. She cried out, dropping to her hands and knees.

"You should have figured out how to be a genuine Reiko instead of a fourth-rate, imitation Chikane."

Chikane kicked Reiko over onto her back, then raised the sword for what might have been the final strike. The blade swept down, and in terror Reiko let the black fire of Orochi consume her, her god carrying her away to the shrine of eight gates.

-X X X-

The hawk watched as the victorious Lunar Priestess slowly turned away from where her victim had fallen and slowly, deliberately walked back towards the hospital. Billowing smoke spat up from the shell of the burning car, the orange and black colors the aftermath of violence and savagery.

It dipped its head once, as if nodding in satisfaction, and then spread its wings to leap into the night sky, its dark plumage vanishing against the blackness.

-X X X-

"Chikane! Are you all right? What happened?" Himeko gasped out the moment her sister came into her room.

"Happened?" Chikane said.

"The blood on your vestments is kind of a clue," Marika observed.

Chikane glanced down, seeing the stains. They weren't particularly large, but the red stood out against the white fabric like an alarm sign.

"It's not mine," she hastily told Himeko. "I didn't get hurt."

"But what was it?"

"...Reiko."

Marika got to her feet.

"And that would be my cue to leave. Don't yell at her too much, Himeko; remember that the doctor said you need rest."

"Reiko was _here_? You went out and fought her? _That's_ why you let Marika come in first!"

Chikane nodded.

"I felt her...well, felt something outside. I'm not exactly sure how, but it seems that since my full powers were unsealed my perceptions are stronger."

"And you just went out there?"

"If I had let her come in after me, people could have been hurt like they were at the college."

Himeko flinched, because it was her own point thrown back at her. She'd been the one to insist that people mattered--and she _still_ believed it; they _did_ matter.

"Out there," Chikane added, "the fight was as far away from you as I could make it."

"But why didn't you tell me?"

"It would have just worried you," she dismissed it.

"But I _want_ to worry about you!"

Chikane gave her a strange, confused look. Thinking about it, Himeko realized that her word choice hadn't exactly been clear.

"I mean, I know that as I am, I can't fight alongside you. All I'll do is get in your way and make you take chances to keep me safe."

"That isn't what happened when the Orochi attacked yesterday. She'd have killed me if you hadn't been there."

Himeko smiled.

"I'm really glad I was able to help, but even so that was really a fluke. But even so it just makes my point stronger! I don't want to be left alone in the dark, not knowing what's happening. I...I know it's silly, but I feel like if I can at least cheer you on, then some part of me can be standing with you while you fight."

Chikane blinked in surprise as the words sank in, then bent her head and sighed.

"Himeko..." She shook her head ruefully. "All I wanted was to protect you."

"You're not _supposed_ to protect me, Chikane. We're supposed to be partners, right? Okay, maybe not as priestesses any more, yes, so you're going to be doing the actual fighting when it's necessary. But emotionally at least...I love you, Chikane, and I don't want us to be apart."

She extended a hand to the other girl, and Chikane came over and took it. With a heavy sigh, she sat down in the visitor's chair placed next to the head of the bed.

"I'm sorry, Himeko."

"That's all right. I know you do it because you care; you just take it too far sometimes."

Chikane looked at her, then flicked her sapphire gaze around the room and her face fell.

"And sometimes not far enough."

"Chikane..."

"You're lying in a hospital bed, Himeko! You're here because I insisted, I all but begged you to carry out the ritual with me. You might have been seriously hurt, or even killed! It's only _luck_ that I...that I..." Tears began to well up in her eyes, and Himeko's heart skipped a beat.

"Chikane...Chikane, no, that isn't right. I went along with you because I wanted to!"

"But you _didn't_ want to. I had to all but force you into it."

"Yeah, but...that's not because I was afraid of getting hurt. I just thought it wouldn't work, that having me along would ruin it. If you'd said that you knew it _would_ work but that I'd be risking myself doing it I'd have gone along at once."

They stared at each other for a long instant, then as one burst into sheepish, embarrassed smiles.

"Listen to us," Chikane said. "We sound like the couple from 'The Gift of the Magi.'"

"First Marika, now you? Why is everybody comparing me to foreign books today?"

"Maybe because you're blonde?" Chikane giggled, her happy face making Himeko grin.

"Okay, so what's this one?"

"It's about a married couple who love each other very much but are poor. They want to get each other special Christmas gifts, so the wife sells her hair to a wig-maker so she can buy her husband a chain for his heirloom pocket watch, while he sells his watch so he can buy combs for her to wear in her hair."

"Oh, that's so _sweet_!" Himeko exclaimed. "They loved each other so much..."

"That's the 'gift' in the story's title, the tangible proof of how much they cared for each other. But it's like us, too--we'd sacrifice for each other without a second thought and the only thing that holds us back sometimes is that we know the other one wouldn't be happy at all without us."

Himeko smiled warmly at that.

"I'm glad you know it now, though."

Chikane blushed.

"I wish I'd been better at believing it before; it would have saved us a lot of trouble last time."

"Well, I'm not really so good at explaining things, and I was pretty confused myself, but we're together and that's what counts. So, no more sneaking off to do dangerous things without telling me?"

Chikane sighed.

"All right. I promise."

"Good! So what happened?"

Chikane flinched, and the reaction made Himeko glance down at the bloodstains on the Lunar Priestess's vestments.

"Chikane...Did you kill her?"

"No; she ran away before I could finish her off." She looked her sister in the eyes, her expression angry. "I'm not going to apologize for it, Himeko! She's an Orochi now, whatever she was before, and this has to be settled. In the end the Necks will either kill us or we'll kill them. There's no other way."

"Did I ask for an apology?" Himeko snapped back. The sudden flare of anger made Chikane flinch back again, and it even surprised Himeko, but she didn't run from the feeling. "I'm not made of spun glass, Chikane. I know I'm naive sometimes and I know I can be silly, but I'm not stupid. I've been a priestess of Ame no Murakumo for as long as you have, after all. I know what it means, and that there are things we...you, I guess, now...have to do. I'm not afraid of that."

For a second it looked as if Chikane was going to give in to her urging, but then she looked aside, shaking her head.

"It's...it's not that."

"Then what?"

Chikane clenched her fists in her lap.

"You'd be ashamed of me."

Himeko sighed, shaking her head.

"Chikane...Chikane, look at me."

Reluctantly, the dark-haired girl obeyed.

"Do you honestly believe there is _anything_ you can do that will make me hate you? _Anything?_"

Slowly, Chikane shook her head.

"No. No, I don't. I tried so hard to make it happen last time, did so many awful things, and I couldn't break your love for me."

"Then talk to me. I know that as long as we're together we can bear anything, no matter how awful." Even to Himeko it sounded trite, but...she meant it, _really_ meant it, and there was no other way to express it than the plain truth.

Chikane nodded.

"I...tried my hardest to destroy her. Our powers were closely matched, I might even have had an advantage as an unsealed priestess against a sealed Orochi. In fighting ability, though, there was no comparison. Reiko isn't like the Sixth Neck; she's just...Reiko. She was in the kendo club in high school for a year, probably because I was, and she was awful, so bad that she essentially washed out."

"She didn't stand a chance?"

Chikane shook her head.

"Not unless I got careless. Her Shadow is a sword, and her power flows out of that. She can use it in other ways, but her ability to fight with it _as_ a sword is the core of that power, and since she _can't_ fight, it's hollow. I've spent my last two lives at least training in combat arts, and who knows how many before that." She shook her head. "But that's not it. I...talked with her while we fought."

Himeko didn't quite understand.

"I told her about my past life as Chikane Himemiya, including the fact that I was an Orochi."

"You told her that?" Himeko was a little bit hurt. They'd discussed it together before telling the Ohgamis.

"Becoming an Orochi seemed to have given her confidence and willpower that she'd never had. I thought that if she knew that even in that she was still just tagging along after my past life it would break down her will." Chikane smiled wanly. "It...worked."

"Eh?" Himeko didn't get it at once, but then caught on to what her twin meant. Reiko had spent her whole life idolizing Chikane. Knowing that she was still firmly in Chikane's shadow even as an Orochi, and having that knowledge driven home during a battle in which Chikane was demonstrating her physical and supernatural superiority...

Some of her thoughts must have been plain on her face, not that she was any good at hiding her emotions, because Chikane's expression became sad.

"You understand, don't you?"

-X X X-

It had all been so easy, Chikane thought. The instant that she'd recognized Reiko's newfound and dangerous confidence, she'd realized how she could shatter it. She'd proceeded to do so, drawing out the physical punishment so she could better inflict mental damage. It had been viciously, deliberately cruel, and at least in the short term highly effective. By their next meeting Reiko would likely be hounded by despair or consumed with rage, either condition making her highly vulnerable.

And it hadn't bothered Chikane in the slightest.

Not until she came through the door into Himeko's room.

It was almost as if she was "borrowing" Himeko's conscience while in her presence. Things that she was capable of doing in an eyeblink suddenly became troublesome when around her lover. It was a strange feeling, which she didn't entirely understand. She couldn't even tell if it was a strength or a weakness--did Himeko take away the dispassionate control she needed to be an effective fighter, or did she lend her emotion that made her better able to function as the Lunar Priestess?

_It's no different, really, than the ritual we performed._ Should she feel guilty for making Himeko take part and risk herself? Or was it her insistence that Himeko help that had insured it worked, giving her the power that she'd used to defeat Reiko?

"Was it..." Himeko said, then paused, swallowing nervously. "Was it very bad?"

Chikane nodded.

"I...wouldn't have wanted you to see it," she said very softly. Was that right? "No, to see me doing such things," she corrected her statement.

Himeko squeezed her hand.

"I'm glad I didn't have to," the blonde admitted, "but that's because I don't have the strength to do those things."

"Strength? I'd hardly call it that."

"But it is! The Chikane I know is a wonderful and kind person, even when you don't want to be. I mean...I know Reiko always annoyed you, the way she was your fan instead of being herself. It sort of hurt your pride as a Himemiya even though you're not one anymore, right? But you never brushed her off or said nasty things or were mean to her until now, since she's become an Orochi."

"That's not kindness, Himeko. You have to care about other people to be kind to them."

"But if you didn't care, you'd have just swatted her away like an irritating fly. Maybe that's not 'kindness,' but it's something," Himeko insisted. It almost made Chikane want to laugh, the way Himeko relentlessly looked for the good in her. At times it felt like her beloved didn't so much _find_ that goodness as actively created it within her. "So that's why it's 'strength' to be able to do awful things when it's necessary. I don't think that I could bring myself to, even if I thought of them, which I don't. So you end up having to bear that burden for both of us."

"You have a unique way of looking at things," Chikane said, halfway laughing.

"Did it not come out right?" Himeko asked with a cute little pout.

"No, I think you said it perfectly."

"Because I do mean it, Chikane. I know how hard it is on you to always be the one who ends up with bloody hands. So...that's why I want to share those burdens with you, all right?"

Chikane nodded hesitantly.

"All right."

Telling her was one thing, but knowing how strongly Himeko felt about being there to protect Chikane's heart made Chikane all the more determined to shield Himeko herself. If she wasn't the Solar Priestess, then the least Chikane could do for the girl she loved was to stop forcing the burdens of that role upon her, and to insure that she was able to live a happy life. There must be no more leaving her alone, unprotected in the open where the Orochi could get at her, and certainly no more requesting that she assist in Chikane's actual duties.

Chikane's free hand, the one not holding Himeko's, gripped the sheath of her sword more tightly as she made the vow to herself. But it was feeling the blade beneath her hand, the incongruity of being allowed to bring it into a hospital room, that made her think of something else.

How was it that Marika had noticed the Lunar Priestess Blade at first glance?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: It was really fun to get to write Chikane being evil in this chapter! Yet another significant difference between the manga and the anime (as these author's notes continue to highlight incessantly) is how separate the two versions of Chikane really are (as opposed to the Himekos, who are essentially the same person, though I'd argue that the manga Himeko is more consumed with her dedication to Chikane than the anime one is). The anime Chikane isn't anywhere near as damaged as the manga one is--she's essentially, as the final episode highlights, a 16-year-old girl who was pushed beyond endurance, forced to do terrible things for the sake of her beloved._

_It's significant that exchange is missing in the manga._

_Manga Chikane is, above all, more scheming than her counterpart. Every one of her actions has multiple purposes, multiple agendas to fulfill. I've gone into it a bit in the course of the story itself, already, but it's an important difference to highlight. She plans ahead, thinks geometrically. Anime Chikane might well have done the same thing to Reiko in this chapter, but she'd have done it because she was pushed to it by Reiko's attacks and her fears over Himeko and her own self-doubts. Manga Chikane _deliberately _chose to assault Reiko's self-esteem as well as her body as a tactical combat decision._

_I've wondered just how it was possible that someone with Manga Chikane's personality has the capacity to feel the selfless love for Himeko that she so obviously does (even to the point of being willing to condemn her soul to eternal imprisonment to get Himeko _permanently_ out of the cycle of death and rebirth!). The best explanation I can come up with is that Chikane was originally a loving, kind girl, and the centuries have basically broken her down until the only part of her core humanity that remains is the part that loves Himeko--it's the strongest connection she feels to another, and therefore it's the last to go. Whether or not she's capable of recovering in future years, now that she's managed to "find" Himeko's love is an open question._

_It's particularly open since the cycle of _this_ story is nowhere near to being resolved._

_Incidentally, just for the record, I absolutely loathe "The Gift of the Magi." While I understand how most people seem to see it--indeed, how Himeko sees it!--I look at that story and I see a perfect example of how a lack of communication and a selfish desire for the "grand gesture" can damage a relationship. The "gift" is superfluous because they _ought_ to be affirming their love for one another _every day_, without need for Absurdly Epic Sacrifices--in short, that learning that they'd sacrificed for one another should tell them nothing that they don't already know! My wife agrees in part; she thinks it's sweet, but she also thinks it's "a total waste; both of them were stupid."_


	12. The Gathering Night

"Congratulate me, little brother."

Minako looked tired. Perspiration dotted her forehead, dust from the archives speckled her blouse and skirt, and there were dark circles under her eyes. But there was also a smug look that Reverend Ohgami understood all too well; he'd first seen it when they were playing games as children and she was about to pull off some coup to achieve victory, and ever since it had invariably marked some triumph on her part.

"Oh? What is it?"

She held up a sheet of paper.

"It happens to be a list of the eight seals placed on the gods of Yamata no Orochi."

"You...how did you...?" he exclaimed, his face lighting up.

Minako grinned at him.

"Don't underestimate my research skills, Takeshi," she said with a chuckle. "After compiling the full list, I started eliminating sites at the university library, which the Orochi thoughtfully haven't destroyed yet. That pared it down to fourteen. At that point I came back here to the shrine archives to finish the job."

"Why didn't you start here?" Reverend Ohgami asked curiously.

"Two reasons. One, we don't have the details about the newer shrines, so no matter which place I started at there would be red herrings left over. Two, our organizational system is a bad joke. There's no easily arranged reference section or card-catalog database or really any kind of filing system. It was much easier to eliminate the overlap from there. But I'll do you one better. I know which one they're going to unseal first."

The professor shot her brother a grin, no doubt at the expression of stunned surprise he could feel forming on his face.

-X X X-

Kei Tsujimura wasn't happy. He'd looked all over Mahoroba for the Fifth Neck without result, and he could only imagine what the First's response was going to be. _Damned princess_, he thought. _Who'd'a thunk even Orochi cares about birth? And what the hell does she expect, anyway? It's not like I've got some magic way to track him!_

It buzzed at the back of his brain that he _should_ know these things, that the Orochi _should_ be able to seek out one another--and the priestesses besides.

_Those damned seals!_ barked in his mind. Why did this always have to happen to him? Every time he managed to achieve something in his life he found obstacles set by others, walls blocking his ability and reason. He had no chance to succeed--hell, he didn't even have the chance to _fail_--when forced to comply with artificial limits put on him by others. He'd thought that would change when he'd awakened as an Orochi, but it didn't happen. Sure, he'd showed those bastards who'd snubbed him who was boss, but now he had completely different goals--and a completely different set of roadblocks.

At least this time there were other people working on the problem with him. Abe might have been looney over the whole end-of-the-world thing, but he did share a close connection with the will of the god that might tell him something. And Ozawa might have a stick up his butt and Reiko might be a princess who wouldn't know _real_ hardship if it bit her on the ass, but the Seventh and First were both pretty smart. Maybe they could figure out some way to solve the problem?

_Not bloody likely_, he thought with a snort. No, if there was a way, he'd have to find it himself. If Kei had learned anything in his nineteen years it was that a man couldn't rely on anybody but himself when the chips were down. Whether it was a deadbeat father who ran off when he was two, a drunken mother who could barely wake up before noon, teachers who just wanted to maintain order in the classroom without giving a damn about actually teaching, cops who marked someone down as a lost cause before he was old enough to drink, or crooks who called a man garbage because he'd made his own way instead of being part of their family, other people who were at best in the way and at worst actively trying to keep you down. No, the First, Third, and Seventh would be as useless as the whore, the painter, and the psycho.

_Just like I thought_, he reflected as he reappeared in the shrine of eight gates, _not a damn one of 'em's back._ Abe was still playing least-in-sight and Ozawa and Akemi were still no doubt chasing him all over creation. _No Hirata, either, so at least I haven't been running around after someone who was sitting here on his ass all along_. The Fourth, too, had apparently given up on trying to solve the shrine puzzle--_like she'd be able to_--and gone off to whatever it was she did while alone.

Which was when he saw it.

_What the--?_

He sprang to the top of the First's prayer gate, landing easily on the broad stone top. At first, he barely recognized the form huddled there as Reiko at all. Her clothes were ripped and slashed, smeared liberally with blood. More than one wound was clearly visible beneath the slashes, and there were bruises on her face. The top of the _torii_ around her was smeared with blood--_dried_ blood. Which meant that she must have been like this for hours. _How the hell bad was she hurt?_ Kei boggled. The power of the Orochi had kept her alive, like it had when the Lunar Bitch had stabbed the Sixth, but...

_Damn! It's like she was taken apart, piece by piece!_

"Reiko?" he asked hesitantly. "Hey, First, are you--?" He reached out to touch her shoulder. _Shit! I'm so bad at this; I've got no idea what to say!_ Only when his hand tentatively brushed her did she react, first with a flinch that turned into a shudder, than by looking up. Reiko's face was a grotesque mask. It was covered in blood, but long streaks from tears cut through the crusted red-brown stains. "Damn, First, what happened?"

"First?" she said in an eerie, choking laugh that made Kei shiver. "I'll never be first...I'll always be nothing but a shadow to her..."

Her voice trailed off in choking sobs, and the tears began to flow again.

-X X X-

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Chikane asked, a little testily. Marika had stopped by to greet them when Himeko was released from the hospital.

"Can't think of why. Either you'll lose and the Orochi will destroy the world, in which case there's no way I want to spend my last few days listening to lectures, or you'll win and time will reset back to your birthday, in which case I won't remember anything I learn anyway and will just have to hear it all over again. So, I'm shamelessly playing hooky. Besides, if for some weird reason any of this sticks with me, what you're doing is better practice for my future than what I learn in class anyway."

Chikane arched an eyebrow. Himeko wished she could do that; she'd always thought it was a cool expression, not that she ever had occasion to use it.

"Don't you remember?" she told her sister. "Marika's going to take over Ohgami Shrine when her father retires."

"Unless I marry another priest who's better-suited for it," the green-haired girl added. "Or unless Aunt Minako decides to keep a guy for more than six months and their kid wants the job. I mean, I'm not going to fight tooth-and-nail for it. But it is the family tradition and...you know, I don't want to back out on tradition. Especially now that I know from the two of you that it isn't all a joke but something really important. Geez, I hope I don't forget that part!"

"The Ohgami blood," Chikane murmured.

"Huh?"

She surprised Himeko by smiling at Marika.

"I'd forgotten about that, that your father had been training you."

"Oh. Well, it's not like you and I spend a lot of time chatting over our life's plans, Tsukuyo."

"But why does that matter?" Himeko asked.

"It answers a question about something that's been bothering me."

"That's not an answer!"

Chikane grinned.

"Yes it is. You're just not asking the right questions."

Himeko pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Geez, don't be so mean!"

Chikane ruffled her hair. Himeko responded by tilting her head to one side, opening her eyes as wide as she could, and fluttering her lashes just a little.

"Oh, all right. I was wondering why she could see my sword when all the doctors and nurses apparently didn't notice it."

"The lethal puppy-dog eyes make even the iciest heart melt! Hey, wait--you thought I might be an Orochi?"

"We've only met two so far. That leaves six unaccounted for."

"But not Marika!" Himeko protested.

"Oh, I don't know," Marika teased. "After all, if the Lunar Priestess herself can be an Orochi, then anyone might be a valid suspect. Well, except Hikari."

"True," Chikane agreed.

"Um...not really," Himeko pointed out.

"Seriously, Hikari, what could ever make _you_ want to destroy the world?"

"Well, if Chikane had really wanted to do it, I'd have tried to help her last time."

"I seem to recall you fighting very hard to stop that," Chikane said.

"But it's not what you wanted! What you were trying to do was to have me stop the cycles, and all you really _wanted_ was a way we could be together!" She hooked an arm through Chikane's and leaned up against her shoulder.

"I wonder what the current Orochi really want," Marika mused, no doubt changing the subject because things were getting embarrassingly intimate.

"Honestly, I don't care," Chikane said, "unless it helps me to beat them. Whatever they want, it's not something I'm willing to let them take."

Above them, dark clouds swirled as if called by the prophecy of coming violence implicit in Chikane's words.

-X X X-

The Seventh Neck of Orochi scowled viciously, crumpling his empty drink cup in his hand before flinging it into a nearby trash can with an almost convulsive motion. Ozawa had been attempting to find the missing Third Neck; he hadn't expected to do so sitting at a table in McDonald's while eating lunch, watching the live news feed on a wall TV to pass the time.

"Prefectural police today reported that the body found last night behind the train station in the town of Mahoroba has been identified as that of Yuujirou Abe of Kyoto, age 41, a former employee of Niishida Advanced Design. Sources within the department confirm that they are treating the suspicious death as a homicide, and are further looking into possible connections to the recent terrorist attack that left over a dozen Niishida executives dead. No arrests have yet been announced in that case, which some have speculated is connected to the Himemiya Financial Group, which had recently acquired Niishida in..."

"You're looking angry," Akemi observed as she returned from the washroom. Ozawa gestured at the television screen.

"What...that's Abe!" she gasped.

"Dead," he agreed. "Let's go."

"Yes, we should tell--"

He shook his head.

"No, I don't mean go back. Just somewhere more private, where we can talk without being overheard."

That was not to say that he wasn't willing to lash out, to destroy everyone within range if, say, someone had recognized his face and started screaming for the police. It was just that such actions were a distraction to his goals; sowing random chaos for its own sake held no appeal for him. Destruction would come at the end of it all, once the priestesses were dead and Orochi summoned. While he understood how some of the others had required the visceral pleasure of settling their personal scores at once, Ozawa himself did not. For him, it was enough to know that the rot would all be blown away in the purifying wind of Yamata no Orochi.

Or maybe he was fooling himself. Maybe it had nothing to do with a disciplined will and goal-oriented mind. Maybe it was just that he didn't know the names and faces of those who'd wronged him.

They left the restaurant and walked down the street, then turned up a side lane that led away from the shopping district. Within a couple of blocks they were walking past neat little houses all in a row behind which, no doubt, suburban families lived. Were they in blissful ignorance of what was to come? Or were they, too, living out their own misery, their hearts yearning for ultimate destruction the way those called by Orochi were?

"Surrounded by people and yet alone," Akemi said. "How different it is from the city, where every breath of air is choked with someone else's sweat."

"The air may be cleaner," Ozawa decided, "but the people are just as foul." The First Neck had grown up in Mahoroba, after all, and had ended up as malice-wracked as any of them.

Akemi was silent for a moment, then apparently chose not to extend the conversation, instead returning to the relevant point.

"So, Abe is dead?"

"That's what the broadcast reported," Ozawa agreed. "They said he was found last night behind the train station. Since he'd had a job, a family, a place in society, I'm not surprised that the police were able to identify his body. What they couldn't know is _how_ he was killed."

"As Orochi, we _can't_ die so long as we are sheltered by the power of our gods," Akemi agreed, speaking not only from knowledge but personal experience. "To kill Abe, his murderer had to first disrupt the Shadow of Hi no Ashinazuchi, then strike his supernaturally-enhanced body down. One of the priestesses, no doubt."

"Perhaps."

"Perhaps?"

Ozawa rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"The last we saw of Abe, he was remaining within the shrine of Orochi to commune with the dark god while we searched for the shrines sealing our gods. There is no guarantee this is all that he did, of course. For one example, he may have been given the location of the Solar Priestess, went at once to confront her, and been destroyed for his haste. But if he _did_ remain within the shrine bounds..."

The clouds above were as dark and threatening as those that swirled endlessly above the gates of the Orochi.

"The priestesses wouldn't be able to follow. Is that what you mean?"

"Yes. And besides the priestesses, only a fellow Orochi would have the power to kill one of us."

"But who? And why?"

"It's pure speculation at best. But now I understand Yamata no Orochi's anger at our last gathering. It was not at the speed of our progress, but at Abe's death--and possibly at the treachery of his slayer."

"What do we do?"

"Watch carefully. Do not leave ourselves unguarded. And strike when the moment is right. Thus far I have been content to follow the First's lead, but now it is clear that I take a more active role. The Necks must unite to accomplish their purpose rather than running to and fro willy-nilly."

-X X X-

Hirata could taste the storm on the wind, the heaviness like water in the air that seemed to cling to his body, the ozone of electricity against his tongue promising lightning to come. Yes, a storm was brewing over Mahoroba, and he would be at the eye of it.

"There you are. I was getting tired of waiting."

The black hawk opened its beak and let loose a keening cry. The one on whose shoulder it perched reached up and gentled it, stroking its shadowy feathers.

"Yokusemi no Mizuchi is restless, too. Perhaps he should be your Shadow, rather than mine," the Eighth Neck reflected.

"Ho no Shuraizuchi suits me fine. It goes with my nature."

"As all the gods do with their bearers. These calls do not come by accident," Hirata's companion agreed.

"So, all your watching and waiting has paid off, then?"

"Patience is a weapon. The best time to destroy your enemies is when they believe they are acting of their own free will. Reiko chose to attack the Lunar Priestess out of emotion, not foresight, and paid for it."

"I thought it was just luck she got away."

"Not her first attack. I'm referring to last night."

"Last night?"

"Dear Reiko felt the need to appear to her former crush. I believe it was out of some craving to show off how much she'd grown and changed since becoming an Orochi. It, shall we say...did not go well. With a few cutting remarks the Lunar Priestess goaded her into a fight and then proceeded to carve Reiko apart. Now that she has awakened to her true self she is no longer so weak. Before, she was as strong as one of us without our gods. Now, she is as strong as one of us _with_ our Shadows, and quite certainly more skilled than most."

"Is Reiko alive?"

"Barely. Though by now no doubt her body has largely repaired itself." The Eighth Neck smiled. "As for her mind, well, we'll see. I must say that Tsukuyo Asamiya would make an excellent Orochi. Such calculated cruelty is rather impressive."

Hirata felt his gut churn.

"And we're--"

His counterpart laughed, and he wished that he had some of his fellow Necks' confidence. Hirata was certain that unlike Reiko's veneer of strength, a newly gained and therefore fragile thing, the Eighth's confidence was an old friend.

Which was why he'd chosen to throw his lot in this alliance, rather than with the other six.

"Please keep calm. But I have to say, I admire your intuition. We do in fact have to confront her. What we do _not_ have to do is kill her or even force a retreat. We need one thing and one thing only: her blood."

"Her..._blood_?"

"Exactly. That is the key. I really can't think how we could have overlooked it for so long."

"I don't understand," Hirata admitted.

"To unseal the ultimate power of Orochi, it is necessary to ritually shed the blood of a pure priestess. These eight seals that inhibit us now are only lesser versions of the same seal, the same magic from the same source. It is _barely_ possible that multiple Orochi, perhaps even all eight, could break the seal through sheer power, but to unlock it requires the blood of a priestess. Spill her blood, and we have the key to break the seal."

"Even so, it's dangerous..."

Hirata flinched and fell silent when the other Neck's gaze turned scornful.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

"No; your concern is valid, particularly as I just spent the time to impress upon you how frightening an opponent the Lunar Priestess can be. If you intended to fight her one-on-one to the death, your concern would be more than justified. Which is why we aren't going to do that. We will fight together, two against one, and by luring her into an ambush we can guarantee that we get what we want."

"An ambush? But how can you bait her into doing what you want?" Hirata was starting to feel bothered by his own confusion. The gap in terms of knowledge was simply too broad for the artist to fool himself into thinking that he was the Eighth's partner or ally. He was the other Orochi's minion, no more, his purpose solely to provide additional power to carry out the Eighth Neck's plans.

_But how is that different from following the orders of the First or Seventh, except that Reiko and Ozawa lack the Eighth's wisdom? There's no shame in listening to those with actual knowledge, only in submitting to fools._

So he listened patiently to how the Lunar Priestess would be brought to sow the seeds of her own annihilation, and the world's doom.

-X X X-

Thunder rumbled from the clouds outside. Chikane glanced out the window and saw the way the clouds swirled cruelly. There was a storm threatening, she thought, a harsh one that made what Reverend Ohgami was telling her somehow fitting.

"I wish that I could say that there would be a respite for you, after the ritual of unsealing and your battle with Reiko Himemiya yesterday, but--"

Chikane waved his concern away.

"There will be respite enough for me when this month is over," she pointed out. "Until then I shall simply have to try my best. We both have our duties, after all."

He nodded.

"That of the Ohgami being to support the priestesses in their work, as we have in this case--though it is all bad news, I fear."

"But that I can do something about."

He nodded again.

"I hope that it is possible."

"So what is it?" she asked bluntly.

"While we still have made no progress concerning the identity of the Solar Priestess, we have been able to learn more about the seals on the Orochi gods. Minako was able to discover the location of the shrines which seal them."

"I'm impressed by Professor Ohgami's research skills," she said sincerely.

"The problem is, if we are correct, the Orochi will move to break one of those seals tonight. Timing is important as we move through the month; if they fail tonight it will be another three days before they can try again to unseal a shrine through proper ritual." He paused and stroked his chin. "My fear is that should they succeed even this once, then ritual and timing won't matter."

Chikane nodded back.

"I understand. Not only would it mean that one of the Orochi would be fully free, but if that one is willing to work with the others he or she could simply tear open the shrines through brute force. It's a miracle that the seals have continued to exist this long"--_a miracle, or a testament to the purity of Himeko's spirit that the world she built wouldn't have enough malice to shatter those bonds--_"so it's impossible that they could last against the full power of an Orochi god. But even one would be more than I could face, alone and without the power of Ame no Murakumo."

"That was what I thought."

"But if there are eight shrines, do you know which one they'll start with?"

"Minako thinks that they have to start at one end of the chain or the other, with Take no Sukunazuchi or Yokusemi no Mizuchi."

"Is it necessary that the corresponding Neck be the one to perform the ritual?"

Ohgami thought about that.

"I honestly can't say, though it certainly sounds reasonable."

"In that case, we'll begin with the seal for the Eighth Neck's god." She found herself smiling as she added, "I don't believe Reiko will be in any condition to perform rituals tonight. I presume that Professor Ohgami was able to identify which shrine was which?"

"Thankfully, yes." He took a folded list from his kimono sleeve, checked it, and gave her the address.

"I'd better leave now, then," she said. "May I borrow your car, Reverend?"

"Of course."

"Thank you. I'll go tell Himeko."

She turned to leave, but was stopped in mid-motion by the priest's sharp voice.

"Tsukuyo! You can't be thinking of bringing your sister with you?"

"What?"

"She was just released from the hospital today! She's in no condition to be going out and fighting Orochi."

"No, I--"

"Please, I--" he cut her off, then sighed heavily, letting his head sag. "Tsukuyo, I'm not saying this as a priest or as an Ohgami, but as a father. I know that Hikari is your twin sister, and that beyond that fact you share a bond I can only begin to understand from past lives, but she's also my daughter's best friend. Through that I've come to know and care for her. I'm just afraid that if you keep trying to act as if she still is what she used to be that next time she won't be as lucky as she was yesterday."

She turned away from him so she wouldn't have to see his face, his concern both touching and appalling.

_What she used to be._

Every time she tried to set it aside, it came back to her again. Chikane was going to go out and fight the Orochi, and she could barely see the point, not when the ruin of her existence stared her in the face.

"Why are you saying this to me? Why not to her?" she asked softly.

"Because she follows where you lead. If you didn't ask, she wouldn't go along into danger."

Thunder rumbled again, this time accompanied by a bolt of lightning that cast the room in stark white for an instant. Chikane found her lips curving upwards in a smile heavy with irony.

"You really don't understand us at all, do you?"

She began to walk towards the door.

"Tsukuyo--"

Chikane stopped, resting her head on the jamb and looked back over her shoulder at the priest.

"Don't worry, Reverend Ohgami. I'm not going to have her come along. I'm only keeping a promise to tell her what I'm doing tonight. She won't let me protect her from that knowledge, you see."

He looked at her, obviously confused.

"As for the rest of it, I agree with you. I should have been protecting her all along."

_After all, hers is the only happiness I'm fighting for._

The prospect of Chikane's own happiness seemed as remote as the moon itself and like it, utterly hidden from view.


	13. Sturm und Drang

Blood.

The smell hit Chikane's nostrils, cutting through the scent of the coming storm and the pines like a sword-stroke. It came from the open door of the priest's hut. She had an arrow nocked, its point glowing faintly with the power she'd infused in it, before she took her first steps inside. All her senses, natural as well as supernatural, were awake to their fullest extent; a footfall, a rush of air, or a gathering of power alike would catch her attention.

None of those things came. There was only the corpse of the frail old man Yanagii, thrown down amid his simple possessions like a jumble of broken sticks. He'd been no threat to anyone, but it seemed that the Orochi had wanted no witnesses.

_They're here, then_, Chikane thought as she lowered her bow and released the tension on the string. _Reverend Ohgami wasn't mistaken_. This was not an old crime left undiscovered; the blood was still fresh.

_I'm glad that Himeko didn't have to see this_.

Her twin hadn't been happy about Chikane going out to face the Orochi alone, nor in Chikane's insistence that she stay within the bounds of Ohgami Shrine. If Chikane failed, the shrine's wards would be no protection, but even if the god was not unsealed there were eight Orochi and some might come for Himeko while others attempted the unsealing. In that case, the shrine's barriers and the powers of the Ohgamis might be significant. In any case, it was the best protection Chikane could think of besides her own sword.

A sword that had other work to accomplish tonight.

The rising surge of dark power dragged her attention away from her concerns. The Orochi _were_ here, _now_. Nothing else mattered. Chikane left the hut and followed the greater darkness through the shadows, a trail as plain as if it had been blazed on the ground. It led right to the clearing containing the small shrine, where a man stood, his back to Chikane, long dark hair spilling past the collar of his black T-shirt. Shadows seemed to surround him, gathering at his command. Thunder rumbled from above as if answering her summoning.

_One shot_, Chikane thought, drawing her bow. _He has no idea that I'm here. One shot will end this._.

And then what?

It would certainly accomplish her goal. The unsealing would be stopped. But the Neck would surely live. Even if slain by her arrow, his body would be restored by his god. She would win a tactical victory, but a strategic stalemate.

Again she lowered her bow.

The brand on her back burned white-hot as she summoned its power instead, and prepared to stain her hands bloody once again.

-X X X-

Hirata flinched as he felt the sudden surge of power from behind him. He hated being the bait, the one who had to stand out and exposed, but the Eighth was right in one thing: his Shadow was better suited for a straight-up fight than Yokusemi no Mizuchi. So he'd accepted the role.

It didn't mean that he had to like it.

He spun as the light of the Lunar Priestess rose, calling on his own Shadow's power. If he could strike before her--

_"May the moon's light capture this place within its radiance!"_

The pale gold of moonlight washed over them, bathing the circle of the shrine clearing in an eerie luminescence that seemed to come from no source, but emanated from the air itself. Hirata felt the barrier raise, the shifting of the area into an enclosed space.

He was trapped inside. With the Lunar Priestess.

The Eighth Neck was equally trapped outside, away from the fight.

Thunder roared again, piercing the unnatural moonglow with a brilliant white flash for the barest instant, and the promised deluge began.

-X X X-

_Got you!_ Chikane enthused as she felt her barrier settle into place. Now that her full powers had returned the effect was much stronger, but it was the same magic she had invoked when fleeing from Reiko's first attack three days ago. Unless the barrier was broken by her own will or, more likely, by pure force, no person could enter or leave, including through teleportation. There would be no retreat for this Orochi. He would have to beat her or die.

He'd spun to face her as soon as she raised the barrier. There was shock in his gaze, the sudden fear as the situation was wrested from his control. Then a change seemed to settle over him, his mouth setting itself into a line. He'd accepted the facts.

"Just you and I, then," he stated, then shrugged, apparently having nothing else to say. That was fine by Chikane, who had nothing to say to this unknown man, either.

He summoned his power then--or, more accurately, turned the power he'd already summoned to a purpose. The darkness settled across his face, deepening into a Shadow. In the next instant it was there, a jet-black false face covering his own. The Shadow seemed streaked with blue marks, and the features were twisted like an actor's passion-mask expressing inutterable sorrow, shedding painted tears down the cheeks. The form of the Shadow was unexpected, and it made Chikane hesitate for just an instant, leaving her off-guard when the onyx lips exhaled a stream of freezing shards at her.

There was no time to defend herself; she could only fling her body to one side. She felt the cold of the blast, and the stinging ice blades cut at her vestments, plucked at sleeves and cuffs, one edge even slicing thinly along her right cheek. Chikane felt the sting of it, worried at first, but recognized in the next instant that the wound was superficial, nothing that would hamper her in combat.

She was much more concerned with the attack that had been sent against her. The mask, the icy breath; these weren't attributes ordinarily associated with the Eighth Neck, or its Orochi god. Rather, it seemed more like...

_Ho no Shuraizuchi_, she thought, the memories snapping into place. _Which means that this is the _Fifth_ Neck, not the Eighth!_

Another frozen breath whipped towards her, and she rolled away from it across grass already starting to become wet from the downpour. That was twice now that the identity of her enemy had let him catch her off-balance, mistakes she couldn't afford to be making.

_I can't worry about how he came to be here right now! If I don't win the battle the larger picture won't matter_.

Chikane got to her feet. Though her bow had somehow stayed intact even when she'd rolled her weight across it, most of her arrows had spilled out of the quiver during her acrobatics. Besides that, trading ranged fire with a Neck whose god was well-suited for such a battle was a foolish tactic. Steel seemed to ring as she drew her sword. She needed to bring the fight close, where she could control the ground.

The Orochi seemed to recognize this, and launched another strike. She ran diagonally, her steps light and quick, dodging as well as approaching at the same time. He sprang backwards, his feet landing on top of the small shrine. She was surprised that it held his weight, as decrepit as it was, then realized that the seal must be sustaining its physical structure. Chikane charged, all the while anticipating the next attack, but when it came it was different than she expected.

The image of the Shadow-mask changed, the features twisting from sorrow and despair into anger while the blue markings turned to a bright orange-red. What sprayed from its lips was not ice, but a raging gout of flame. It tore through the pouring rain towards Chikane, raising clouds of steam in its wake. Chikane channeled her power through her sword, deflecting the energies of the attack so that the fire sprayed to either side of her. The heat washed across her as the flames passed, and in those places where it touched the ground, grass was momentarily set alight before wind and rain snuffed the fire.

The Fifth Neck breathed out flame again, this time in a lashing coil that struck at her like a whip. Chikane sprang aside before the fiery breath could touch her, but it gave the Orochi time to react to her movements by going in the opposite direction, widening the gap between them.

Chikane wished she had the ability to fight fire with fire, to project her power directly as the Fifth Neck could, but the Lunar Priestess's abilities didn't work that way. She needed to channel her force into her weapons. Perhaps he wasn't a fighter--he certainly didn't move like one--but he was adept enough at using his power to keep her at bay. Eventually, if that kept up, her barrier would fade and he could escape.

_I can't let that happen._ Without the power that should be Himeko's alongside hers, their side was crippled. An awakened Orochi, even one, would be too much. She _had_ to whittle down their numbers at any opportunity.

Sword in hand, she charged the Neck again. Fire struck once more, and she deflected it, then lunged strongly to one side in a feint. The Orochi reacted, bolting the other way, only to find Chikane had reversed her momentum and he was heading towards her instead of away. She lunged, slicing through his shirt and drawing a long slash across his chest, but no more.

_So close!_

Thunder roared and the Shadow changed its mask again, blasting Chikane at almost point-blank range. There was no way it could miss; the ice storm launching her off her feet, the larger chunks slashing and piercing her. The Lunar Priestess's sigil burned at her back, and she realized she'd reflexively shielded herself through her vestments or else she'd be dead.

This wasn't working.

-X X X-

_Damn it!_ Hirata thought as he scrambled back. _She almost had me!_ His rain-soaked clothing clung to him, weighed him down like chains. Coming to grips with her would get him killed, yet he was barely holding her off. The wound was superficial, inflicting little more than pain and nothing that his regenerative abilities couldn't take care of in minutes. What mattered was the symbol. The sting across his chest was an emblem of her ability to reach him, to injure him.

A mark of fear.

But Hirata was a Neck of Orochi, and what was that, anyway, but fear distilled to its most primal form? Fear of failure, fear of misery, fear of suffering, turned to hate of those who inflicted those things. Hatred and anger that burned up white-hot, turning fear outward against its object.

The Shadow of Ho no Shuraizuchi breathed out another torrent of searing flame.

-X X X-

Chikane flung herself back as fire swept across the grass at her feet. A low attack like that tempted her to try leaping over it to strike, but she resisted the urge, knowing that it would leave her vulnerable. She swept her arm across her face, wiping the streaming rain out of her eyes.

It had been so much easier to deal with Reiko. She'd brought the fight to Chikane on her own ground, sword to sword, where Chikane had used her skill to master her. Likewise, Reiko had been psychologically vulnerable in ways this Orochi, with no personal tie, was not.

Another firebolt came at her; she struck it aside but was halted again in her attempt to advance.

Himeko would be so worried if she was watching this. Chikane remembered the next-to-last thing her sister had said before she'd left: _Chikane, please be careful_. It was so like Himeko, a plain, even trite statement yet meant from the heart, as much as the "I love you" that had followed. It was maddening that after all they'd been through, Chikane was fighting alone again.

_Alone._

She winced, not from the battering and injuries she'd received, but at her own stupidity.

_Please be careful_.

Careful? That was a bad joke. She wasn't using care at all, not in either sense of the word: not protecting herself and not properly using her wits for the fight itself.

_Because it doesn't matter. If I lose Himeko..._

Stupid!

Rain pelted her, as if the heavens themselves were punishing her for her shortsightedness, her despair.

"Do you think I'll let you win?" she said aloud, bitter tears mingling with the water streaming down her face. "Regardless of what happens to me, do you think I'll let you destroy _her_? Carry her soul down to oblivion with the rest of the world?"

Did the Orochi understand her? Did her words hold any meaning for him at all? The rigid features of his mask gave away nothing.

It didn't matter. She wasn't talking to him, anyway. She meant it for herself, and if anyone else for Yamata no Orochi itself. The pure will of hate and despair.

_If she isn't the Solar Priestess...if I lose her it will damn me. _She'd been fighting that realization, hiding from it, trying to deny it, doing anything but facing it until tonight. Fear was the Orochi's weapon, and fear of the truth had destroyed her clear sight.

The Orochi tried another firebolt and Chikane angrily slapped it aside, so that the attack actually crashed against the barrier. But the gesture made the Fifth Neck flinch in surprise.

"Maybe I have nothing," she said, her emotions again demanding to be heard aloud. "Maybe after the things I've done these few years of happiness are more than I deserve. But even if that's true, I _will_ build a world where Himeko can at least find a new happiness of her own!"

She slammed the Lunar Blade back into its sheath.

-X X X-

It didn't make sense, Hirata thought. She'd sheathed her sword? Why? And what had she been talking about? Who was Himeko, anyway? The sister that they'd thought might be the Solar Priestess?

Something had changed, and he didn't understand it. But if she was going to abandon her defense against his attacks, he knew the correct response.

-X X X-

Another burning coil of fire shot towards Chikane, but she was already in motion, turning and dodging left. The slick grass made for desperate footing, but the Lunar Priestess's steps were sure, as if her renewed sense of purpose gave her movements equal clarity and precision. As first one bolt, then a second struck behind her feet, she snatched her bow off her back, then dove behind the small shrine that was the focus of it all. The third fiery breath struck the shrine, and the seal reacted to the assault on it, shining golden-bright. The Neck was knocked sprawling by the reflected damage, and Chikane came up from behind cover.

Skilled as she was at _kyujutsu_, Chikane was simply unable to exchange ranged fire with an Orochi that could launch attacks by an act of will alone.

So she'd used the terrain to her advantage.

The point of the released arrow was agleam with moonlight as it shot towards the Neck. As he raised his head, dizzy from the impact, the arrow struck home in the mask, piercing the shadow-construct and disincorporating it just as had happened to the Sixth Neck's Shadow in their earlier battle. His face stood revealed, thin and angular in a way that would have been handsome if it wasn't for the blunt, strong chin. His eyes were wide in fear as she loosed the second arrow, but he moved, rolling, terror and the enhanced power of the Orochi combining to give him speed enough to move. The arrow's point snipped strands of his hair as he dodged, but it thudded into the ground rather than his body.

Was it intellect or instinct that made him come to his feet and launch himself at her, Chikane wondered? Without his Shadow, he was no more than a target at long range for her; he _had_ to close in. She fired her last arrow as he jumped; it took him in the thigh and he grunted in pain. Chikane spun out of his way, dropping her bow, as his flying tackle missed. His jump had been further and faster than an ordinary person's; she recalled from how the Sixth Neck had been able to wield some of her own power personally even while Izuhara no Tamazuchi had been dispelled.

_Tsuki no miko no tachi_ hissed from its sheath. The Neck pushed himself up on one arm and his good leg, moving fast, his other hand lunging in for her throat. She held back for a second, letting him get his hand on her and so locking his body in place with respect to hers. Even as he started to exert pressure, Chikane slashed, the holy sword tearing into flesh. Blood spurted as ribs and breastbone shattered and the Orochi's heart was cleaved in two.

His grip slackened, and he fell to the ground. Thunder roared again, seeming to herald his defeat.

Chikane took several deep breaths, reassuring herself that she hadn't taken any serious injury. A few bruises and cuts, but nothing else. The weather probably posed more of a risk than her injuries did. She cleaned the sword of blood and sheathed it, then collected her bow and arrows. The police finding evidence that would link her to this man's death would not be a particular obstacle, but it would be inconvenient. There was no point in attracting further complications.

_Speaking of complications..._

She'd come to fight the Eighth Neck, and had instead discovered the Fifth. Reverend Ohgami had been confident of his and his sister's reasoning, and it had apparently been borne out: the shrine here _did_ seal an Orochi god, and there _had_ been a Neck present doing _something_, but it was the wrong Neck. Why? Had the Ohgamis been wrong in their research? Or was it the Orochi who lacked information?

In Chikane's previous life, her grandfather had used his influence as head of the Himemiya to assemble the potential Orochi as part of his plan to use the dark god's power to remake the world. They'd known about their destiny, about the power of Orochi and the role of the priestesses. Tsubasa and Miyako's charisma on one side and the Himemiya authority on the other had made them an organized force, broken only by Souma Ohgami's rebellion and Chikane's deception, both spawned from their love for Himeko. She no longer had an insider's perspective, but _this_ cycle's Orochi seemed less organized, without that guidance or knowledge. Did they simply not know what they were doing?

Or was there more to it?

_At the very least, there's one less of them now,_ she thought. As for the rest, it was something that bore investigation. Chikane only wished that she had a way to insure that she'd find the answer, because she had a suspicion that she wouldn't like it if the answers found her.

-X X X-

The Eighth Neck remained still and silent within the shadows as the Lunar Priestess lowered the barrier. It was entirely possible that any active use of the Orochi's power could alert the girl, and that would ruin everything. The priestess looked around carefully as she left the clearing, but the driving rain obscured sight and the drumbeat of the drops on earth and trees drowned out sound. There was nothing to be seen, and so she passed on. In a few minutes, the Neck heard the echo of a car engine starting, and Tsukuyo-who'd-been-Chikane left the field of battle, never suspecting that she'd merely played a part.

It was a shame to lose Hirata so early. He'd been of immense use, spying on the other Orochi, letting the Eighth know of the personality clashes within the group as well as their halting attempts to seize their destiny. But a pawn was a pawn, and sometimes it was necessary to make sacrifices. The only requirement was that one received sufficient value in return.

In this, the Eighth Neck had not been cheated.

The clouds covering the moon and the pounding rain made the night as black as pitch, but the hawk's eyes of Yokusemi no Mizuchi were unnaturally keen. Hirata had spoken truly when he said that the Orochi gods were suited to the nature of their Necks; it was the Eighth's place to wait patiently, always watching, and then strike from out of nowhere as a diving raptor would take its prey, in a thunderous, devastating instant. In these circumstances, watching the fight had delivered the Eighth's prize.

Hirata had lost his life, but he had accomplished his mission. Twice, his Shadow's icy breath had drawn the priestess's blood. Guided by the vision of the hawk, the Eighth Neck walked unerringly to a single spot, and plucked a handful of grass upon which crimson drops had spattered.

Turning, the Eighth approached the shrine. Drawing upon the power of Orochi caused the seal to manifest itself as Reiko and Kei had seen it before: a cloud of seething darkness calling out to be free, to ravage and destroy, held back only by a wispy aura of golden light.

"Your time is past," the Orochi told the seal as if it was a living thing--and perhaps it was, for were there not _kami_ in all things of such significance?

_"Yokusemi no Mizuchi!_

_"Wings born of darkness!_

_"Bear me aloft, that I may rain_

_"Damnation upon this world_

_"That cries out for its end!_

_"Eighth God of Orochi;_

_"Be revived!"_

With the last word, the Orochi thrust the bloodstained grass against the golden veil. Thunder roared without lightning, and the seal shattered like glass bursting into thousands of fragments. The physical shrine exploded, torn apart by the devastating force surging out from within. The Eighth screamed with the power of the remembered god; violet lightning embraced the Neck like a lover, and the keening scream of the true Yokusemi no Mizuchi blended with the storm.

The Neck dropped to one knee in a parody of reverence, driven not by awe of the divine but by a shuddering weakness that was left in the wake of the fusion of a human soul with the demonic god. It would have been easy for a person's will to be broken by such a joining. Others had been in the past. The secret lay not in fighting the Orochi nature for mastery, which would eventually shatter the Neck, but in accepting the part of one's self that called to the darkness. It was by doing so, paradoxically, that one achieved ascendance over the Orochi: by submitting to it, one's own will rose dominant.

Yes, decided the Eighth, savoring the influx of enormous power, things were going precisely as expected.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: Another one of the growing list of anime/manga differences raised its head this chapter. In Episode 9 of the anime, Chikane fights the various Necks and turns Girochi, Miyako, Corona, Reiko, and Nekoko to stone. We see her specifically stab Girochi, choke Miyako, and slash Tsubasa in their Orochi brands, strongly suggesting that this is their weak points. In the manga, the Orochi don't have brands like the priestesses do, and the way of destroying them is different. As Reiko notes on p. 96: "Hmm. Seems if you and your god are killed simultaneously, neither will regenerate." Not that this difference means much to the five Necks that she takes down, it's their choice between being statues or corpses...(though in the manga they _do_ manage to inflict the injuries on Chikane that eventually kill her, since manga Himeko refuses to even draw her sword against Chikane...)._

_The Eighth Neck's thoughts in the final scene of this chapter about will mastering the lesser Orochi gods are inspired by the exchange between Souma and Tsubasa on pp. 115-116. As Tsubasa puts it, "Not a single one of us has ever been manipulated by the blood within us. All the true chosen of Orochi have accepted its darkness--accepted and _controlled_." Only Souma ever tried to explicitly reject the darkness of Orochi, and so therefore only he ever suffered its curse. Not even Chikane, who schemed to ultimately destroy Yamata no Orochi forever, had to wrestle with the will of the god or fight off its curse, because she accepted her own darkness (Himeko would argue that she accepted too much of it...). Souma, on the other hand, did not acknowledge things like, "My mother abandoned me through death, and my father was a monster who abused my brother and myself," or "My brother protected me by committing patricide and plunging himself into the hell of prison and life as a career criminal," or "I'm risking my life and putting my very soul in jeopardy to protect a girl whom I love but who not only doesn't love me back but is part of an Epic Romance spanning multiple lifetimes with another girl," and as such his will has to fight to maintain control of himself and his body is wracked by Orochi's curse..._

_The Orochi seal-breaking ritual in this chapter is original, not drawn from any source._


	14. Vows for the Future

"Hikari?"

Himeko flinched in surprise and bonked her forehead against the window glass; she'd been staring so intently out it that she hadn't heard Marika coming up behind her.

"Ow," she said, rubbing the sore spot.

"Hikari, are you all right?"

"Um, yeah. It's just a little bump."

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you like that."

"No, no, it's my fault for being such a klutz."

The girls looked at each other, stammered apologies broken off, and ended up giggling. For Himeko, at least, it was a momentary release of pent-up tension, but the worry settled back into place almost at once.

"How long have you been standing here, anyway?" Marika asked, seeing her expression.

"Um..." Himeko glanced at her watch. "About an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe?" At the end of the residence, the window offered a view of the road outside the shrine. Every so often a blaze of lightning would show the scenery in stark contrast, but there had been no gleam of headlights piercing the rain.

"She's going to be all right," Marika said. "I mean, hey, the whole reason Ame no Murakumo keeps bringing her back is so she can kick Orochi ass, right?"

Himeko smiled at that.

"Yeah, I guess that's right. I mean, I'm not really much of a fighter. I wonder if I was, sometime way back in lives that I don't remember, or if there's another reason why I was chosen."

She turned back, resuming her post at the window, and Marika came up to stand beside her.

"If you ask me, it's because the god couldn't find anyone else who was willing to put up with it all, let alone do it with a smile." Himeko knew her friend well enough to know that she was only half joking.

"Hikari, what's it like?" Marika asked after a few minutes' silence.

"Um, what?"

"Being you. Being reborn like this, through a series of lives. Living in different ages, different times, with nothing the same but Tsukuyo and the fight against Orochi."

"Well, I don't really remember most of it. The only lifetime I have clear memories of is the last one."

"Oh? How come?"

"I guess...when we're reborn it's like any other reincarnated soul. People don't remember their past lives, right?"

"So it's _this_ time that's different?"

Himeko nodded.

"What makes it special?" Marika asked.

"I wished for it," was the answer.

"Hikari?"

"I chose the world that would be remade."

"Oh, yeah, you were saying something about this world being a different one than in your last life."

"I wanted a world where we could be together without having to find one another, where we'd remember all that we'd gone through and how we came to accept each other's feelings. So we remembered our past lives right from the start, who we are and what we're meant to do. I guess that's why we're twins, too, because my wish got turned to give us not only mental closeness but physical closeness. And I'm glad, too!" She could feel herself blushing again. "I know you like to tease us because Chikane and I are lovers, and it bothers Chikane, too, because we have to keep it a secret from everybody, but..." She sighed happily, then continued, "But I got to be with her in this life starting from even before we were born! We grew up together, always got to be there for each other, never even had to spend a single day apart! I...I love her so much, Marika. I don't really care about destiny or past lives or being the Solar Priestess. So long as I can make her happy, that's...that's enough..."

"Hikari..." murmured her friend.

Himeko wiped her eyes on her shirt sleeve.

"I'm sorry I'm sniffling."

"It's okay. She's out there fighting for your sake, right? It's natural to be worried."

"Yeah, but...it's just that it's my fault. She didn't tell me about going to fight Reiko, so I made her promise to tell me when she was doing something like that, so I could share in it, even if only that much. So I can't complain about being worried, because I asked to be." She paused for a second, then added, "Marika, do you know why your dad looked angry when Chikane was telling me about what was happening? He looked as dark as the clouds do!"

Marika thought it over.

"I think Dad gets tricked by appearances with you two. He thinks Tsukuyo's the strong one."

"Chikane _is_ strong!" Himeko leapt to her lover's defense.

"No, she's smart, skilled, and powerful. _You're_ strong. Dad figures that she's dragging you into things you're not able to keep up with, when the truth is, she's the one who's clinging to you out of need." She stopped as a thought hit her. "That's why you wanted to be told, right? So Tsukuyo wouldn't be alone?"

Himeko nodded.

"Uh-huh. I can't help her fight, but at least I can let her know that she has someone cheering her on." Another bolt of lightning startled her; she'd kind of forgotten about the storm while they talked. "How do you know so much about us?"

"Hey, I haven't been your best friend since we met for nothing. You probably pick up on all kinds of stuff about me that nobody else knows. Well, maybe not, but that's just 'cause you're a ditz."

Himeko giggled.

"Imp!"

"Yeah, probably, but--"

"Chikane!"

"What? Oh," Marika realized belatedly that the beams of two headlights could be seen--barely--forging their way up the road. By the time she comprehended what was happening, she was a good four or five steps behind Himeko. The blonde ran back up the hall and out onto the veranda. The driving rain rattled off the roof above her and hissed on the courtyard flagstones, but she barely noticed it, instead watching the headlights pull aside into the garage. The storm drowned out the engine, so she couldn't tell when it was turned off, nor could she hear the garage door closing, but she saw the flicker of white that was Chikane's kimono jacket and heedless of the rain she dashed off the porch and ran down to meet her.

They reached each other just about the time when Chikane passed beneath the _torii_ marking the shrine's boundary.

"Chikane? Chikane, are you all right?" Himeko asked nervously, because it was clear that her lover was not all right. Her head hung, her steps were slow, and her vestments bore several tears and dark stains. "Here, let me help you!"

She put an arm around Chikane's waist while her sister draped hers over Himeko's shoulder. This close, it was clear that Chikane was soaked to the skin and that the car's heater had done very little if anything to dry her. Chilled, she was shivering against Himeko's side.

"I'm all right," she managed to say. "It was only a few nicks and cuts, nothing more. I'm just...tired. I killed the Fifth Neck before he could do anything."

"That's great!"

A faint smile graced Chikane's lips.

"So bloodthirsty..."

"Geez!" Then Himeko smiled, too, because if Chikane was able to make jokes, even such a little one, it meant that she was mostly all right.

Marika came running up to them as they entered the courtyard.

"Is she--"

"Mostly, but she's really cold. Can you get a hot bath ready for her?"

"Yeah, I'll get it started right away, and get out some dry clothes for her. You can take care of her?"

"Mmn-hm," Himeko answered, nodding.

"Okay."

Marika scampered off. Himeko and Chikane made their way across the courtyard to the residence, removed their footwear, and dripped down the hall to the bathroom. Marika had started filling the tub with steaming hot water and had set out a stack of fluffy towels as well as the washbasin, soap, and shampoo.

"That should do it," she said. "My robe is hanging up on the hook behind the door; I know it's too short for Tsukuyo but it should get you decently down the hall. Your clothes from yesterday, the ones you left behind when you changed for the ritual, have been washed and they're laid out for you in my bedroom. I'd bring them here after you've had a chance to get warmed up, but I've learned my lesson about walking in on the two of you in the bath," she added with a wink.

Himeko blushed at the memory, but still thanked Marika for her help.

"No prob. I'm just glad you got home safe, Tsukuyo." She slid the door shut behind her, leaving the sisters alone.

"Okay!" Himeko said. "Let's get you out of those wet things." She stripped the soaked vestments off Chikane, then made the other girl sit on the bath stool while briskly toweling her dry. She was glad to see that Chikane had told the truth; she had a few nicks and slashes, one on her cheek, one on her left shoulder, and one each on her right side and thigh, but each one was both shallow and clean. As a priestess she wouldn't have an Orochi's regeneration power, but it would still speed up her natural healing and slow the effects of more serious injuries. There were also a couple of bruises forming, which Himeko gingerly brushed her fingertips against, but all in all she decided that Chikane had been truthful in saying that she was basically all right. Wetness, cold, emotion, the exertion of battle, and the fading of her adrenalin rush had combined to leave her drained and tired, but that was all. The relief that swelled within Himeko at the thought was more warming than the steam filling the room.

While they waited for the tub to fill, Himeko sluiced hot water over Chikane, then worked up a lather of rose-scented bath gel in a mesh puff and started to wash the dark-haired girl. She'd always thought that it was fun to wait on Chikane like this; there was just something nice about taking care of her lover and making her feel better. Chikane let out a long, satisfied sigh as Himeko massaged sweat and oil, dried mud, grass, and crusted blood from her body.

"That feels really good, Himeko."

I'm glad I could at least do this much," she said happily. She rinsed the soap off, then went over and turned off the taps, since the tub was full. "Are you feeling a little warmer now?"

"Yes, thank you."

Himeko tested Chikane's skin with her hand in a couple of places; she was definitely warmer than she had been when soaked from the rain.

"I'd wash your hair, too, but I think it's more important to get you into the tub," the blonde decided. She piled the blue-black glory of her beloved's hair up in a simple bun and used a washcloth to tie it in place so it wouldn't get into the bath water, then helped the other girl into the tub. Chikane sank down deeply into the steaming water with a blissful sigh.

"Would you join me?" she asked.

"Um, but wouldn't Marika get mad?" Himeko murmured, and Chikane laughed.

"Not for that, Himeko!" she said, giggling. "You're so single-minded."

Himeko might have been horribly embarrassed at being caught out that way, but seeing Chikane laugh and smile made her so happy that she forgot all about it.

"You love a good round of princess-and-handmaiden as much as I do, Chikane," she teased back, and got to see her lover squirm. "But I'll be glad to get in."

She took off her own clothes and began to wash herself while Chikane leaned back in the tub and let the warmth seep into her tired body. While Himeko hadn't been out fighting, staying the night at the hospital had prevented her from taking a shower, so it felt good to get clean. Since unlike her twin she didn't bother with separate shampoo and conditioner she took the chance to wash her hair, too, removing her ribbon and working up a good lather. She wished she'd had the chance to do the same for Chikane; she loved the feel of her lover's hair, the silken weight of it in her hands.

When she was done, she rinsed off, then wrapped up her own hair and walked over to the tub. Chikane watched her the whole way, not with desire but a tenderness in her gaze. Himeko stepped in, letting her body sink into the warmth, and leaned back against Chikane as her beloved's arms came up around her.

"Thank you," Chikane said.

"Don't be silly! It feels really good! And besides, I don't ever need an excuse to let you hold me." Her head rested against Chikane's shoulder so that their faces touched cheek to cheek. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Himeko covered Chikane's hands with her own and savored the closeness. She always felt so safe and secure when Chikane held her, like there was nothing on earth that could hurt her. She hoped that it worked the other way, too, though she supposed that a warrior as fierce as Chikane wouldn't see "protected" as meaning the same thing.

"Say, Himeko," Chikane said lazily, "do you remember the first time we did this, took a bath together?"

"In our previous lives, you mean?"

"That's right."

"Oh, wow, that was such an incredible bath! You can't even call it a bath; it was like an indoor hot spring, with the rocks and all the tropical plants everywhere." Himeko sailed off into memory, then suddenly stiffened.

"Himeko?"

"Aw, I can't believe that I was so stupid. You even did the 'we're both women; there's nothing to be embarrassed about' bit just like in one of my yuri manga! I missed a really good chance! Though maybe I did notice a little bit; I thought that you were reaching...well, for _me_...when you touched my sun mark. I was even gathering my courage, thinking 'but if it's Chikane, it's okay...' and things like that. Did you get nervous and stop at the last second?"

Pink flushed Chikane's cheeks.

"Um...yes, I did. I was flirting a little, though I didn't really expect a response."

"I wish I could go back to then." Himeko giggled and explained, "I bet your eyes would go as wide as saucers!"

"I definitely would have panicked."

"You'd have totally freaked out! It would have been so cute!"

"If people could hear you now, it would completely destroy your 'sweet and innocent' image."

"You know I don't care about that. I just want to make you happy, and the best way I've found to do that is to be completely honest about my feelings for you, even the embarrassing ones."

She swallowed nervously, then, because 'complete honesty' meant something else, too. The promise she'd made to herself in the hospital yesterday had been pushed aside more than once by the ordinary course of events, by things it hadn't been easy to predict, but it had to be faced.

"Chikane..." she said hesitantly.

"What is it?" her twin replied, the laughter gone from her voice. She could tell at once that Himeko had grown serious.

"We haven't really talked about it...what it means that I'm no longer the Solar Priestess."

"There's nothing to talk about," Chikane said at once. "We still have no idea why it happened, or who the new priestess is--or even if there _is_ a new priestess. All we'd be doing is guessing, so there's no point in saying any more about it."

"No!" Himeko all but cried. "That's not what I'm talking about!" Chikane flinched at her sudden vehemence. "I mean about _us_. About what's going to happen with the ritual of revival."

Chikane went stiff.

"Himeko, this isn't--"

Himeko half-turned onto her side so she could look at Chikane directly.

"No," she said again, "this is too important to leave unsaid."

"Do you think I want to say it? Do you think that I want to talk about how we're going to be parted forever? That these few days may be all we have together, and that when they're through you might not even remember me? I could... I could barely make myself face it at _all_, Himeko, let alone waste what little is left to us..." Unable to restrain herself any longer, she lashed out, cracking her fist against the side of the tub.

"Chikane!" _She was thinking _that_? No wonder she's been so moody!_ The reason she'd been so insistent on Himeko joining her for the unsealing rite, why she'd acted as she did at the hospital and in fighting Reiko, it was all because of this. Himeko felt her eyes begin to brim over with tears and she flung her arms around her beloved, holding her tight. "Oh, Chikane, no, that can't be right!"

"How can it be anything else? The priestesses are reborn together, two miko sharing one lifetime for the purpose of defeating Yamata no Orochi."

"But the one who performs the sacrifice is restored to life along with the world, which means that you would come back to me. We could...we could finally live out our lives together in this world, without having to lose each other!"

Chikane's eyes lit with hope for a brief instant, but that promise died out almost at once.

"And then what?"

"Eh?"

"And when that life is done, then what? Not even the chance to live together with you, to grow old and have happy lives is worth losing you after that, stepping into an eternity apart from you!" Convulsively, her arms wrapped around Himeko, clinging fiercely to her. Chikane buried her face in the crook between Himeko's neck and shoulder and sobbed out, "If it's for you, I can bear anything, can _do_ anything, but if I lose you..." Himeko's skin was wet from the bath water, but she could still feel the hot moisture of Chikane's tears trickling out over it. Chikane's sobs poured from her, long and loud and positively _terrifying_. Himeko clung to her sister desperately, wanting to do _something_ and unable to imagine what might possibly help under these circumstances.

"Chikane..." She stroked her sister's back gently, trying to soothe her. There was only so much she could do, though, when she hadn't even started to think of all the bad things their circumstances might mean. She'd only thought of what it meant in this life! As usual, Chikane's mind had proceeded further, exploring possibilities and consequences--and again had tried to bear the burden of that knowledge alone.

"No! I won't believe it!" Himeko cried out. "Even if destiny doesn't force us together, it doesn't matter! I love you because you're Chikane, not because I am or am not Solar Priestess. That isn't meaningless! I don't care what kind of battles you have to fight or what kind of world takes shape, I'll always find you there. I don't care if we lose our memories or what kind of lives will lead, I'll always, always, always be your very own Himeko." She managed a game smile. "I'll just have to work a little harder to find you, that's all. But I will, I know I will. It's a promise!"

"Himeko!"

Himeko pushed Chikane back a bit so she could look at her, immediately cradling her twin's face in her hands both so that she could hold her still and to reassure her that the broken embrace wasn't some kind of rejection.

"How...how can you promise something like that?" Chikane half-sobbed, half-wailed. Tears streamed down her face.

"Because I love you!" Oh, why couldn't she find the _words_? "I do! Worlds and lifetimes don't matter; our souls are drawn together and nothing can ever keep us apart!"

"You really...believe that?"

"Yes, yes!" She pressed urgent kisses against Chikane's cheeks, blotting out the tears. "I don't want to live without you, either. I won't accept a world without you, no matter what. So let me be a little selfish, okay?" She kissed Chikane again, on her lips this time. "Please?"

A massive shudder ran through Chikane's body and her eyelids drooped.

"Himeko...You almost make me believe it," she said softly, her voice choked. She covered Himeko's hands with her own, squeezing. "Your love is so relentless; you make it a force that can break down any obstacle or barrier. Even if it means being cursed by the gods, I'll go on believing in you to the depths of my soul."

"Good! Because I know I can stand anything, endure any suffering if it's a path that brings me back to you."

"Himeko!"

"Chikane..."

Then Chikane kissed her, clinging to her again, and for a long time there were no more words.

-X X X-

The dark sun was wild and seething, pulsing with emotion. Lightning surged in the clouds above the shrine, thunder a throbbing drumbeat to match the emotion of the eye of Orochi. The skies over Mahoroba had cleared with the coming of dawn, but the disciples of eternal night were still shrouded in storm.

"I would be angry, too," Saori reflected aloud, looking up. "What have we managed to do in Orochi's name? Our only productive act was to identify just how badly we've been screwed. Against that the Lunar Priestess is still running loose despite three attempts on her life, the Solar Priestess remains nowhere to be found, our leader is a shell of herself, and we're so given to squabbling that nearly half of us can't be bothered to show up."

Her point was even more valid than she knew, Ozawa thought. Only five of the gates were occupied if one counted Reiko, which the former soldier did not. The catatonic wreckage of a woman that had been the First Neck was as useless to Orochi's goals as were the dead.

"We are losing this war," he stated.

"Y'know, I can see that weasel Fifth backing out," Kei said. "I mean, he pretty much told us all to shove it the last time he was here. But the holy roller? That's way out of character. He ought to be here, screaming at us for how badly we've failed the 'Will of Yamata no Orochi' or however he put it. It's been nearly two days since we've seen his pitiful mug."

"Dead."

Everyone flinched at the unnatural voice, as loud as normal speech but with the hollow, rasping tones of a whisper. Four heads turned towards Reiko's _torii_ to see that the slumped figure had raised her head. With wide, unfocused eyes, pupils so dilated that they nearly swallowed the irises wholly, set in a blood-streaked face she looked more like a ghostly horror than a girl. Even Ozawa found himself unnerved by the spectacle.

"W-what do you mean?" Saori stammered.

There was a long pause, as if the girl wasn't quite capable of understanding her without a delay to process the words. Then Reiko's mouth opened and an answer came, not so much spoken as breathed forth.

"The Third Neck has fallen."

"My God!"

"No way," Kei snapped.

"It's true," Ozawa said. "It was on, of all places, the television news. His body was found by the police."

"How did _she_ know?" Akemi asked, indicating Reiko. She then glanced at Ozawa, who nodded.

"She'd know if she was the one who killed him."

"Wait one damn minute, Seventh. She was with me when the Third did his disappearing act!"

"Treachery!" Reiko cried out as if injured.

"As she says," Ozawa stated.

"There's no way you're pinning this on me, you stiff-necked bastard!" Kei roared. "What about the Fifth? He's playing least-in-sight."

"The Fifth Neck has fallen." Reiko's strange, keening voice echoed out above them all. Even Kei's head snapped back around towards her.

"What, him too?"

No more answers were forthcoming from her; she crumpled back to her gate.

"It isn't knowledge," Akemi suddenly realized. "At least, it isn't _her_ knowledge. When that...that _monster_ did this to her, it broke her will. She couldn't accept the trauma, so she retreated inside herself."

"Ah!" Saori exclaimed, understanding. "It left her open to the will of Orochi. Our connection to it is weak, since we bear only Shadows of its power, but Take no Sukunazuchi doesn't have to bypass a human will. Orochi's voice is speaking to her subconscious the way it could commune with Abe."

Ozawa tugged at his earlobe, thinking. It was a plausible suggestion, and a reasonable alternative for Reiko's being responsible for Abe's death--which as Kei had been quick to recognize, would implicate the Second Neck in addition to the First.

"Yo, you want to point fingers, how about the Eighth Neck? I don't know about you, but if I'm going to suspect any one of us of being a backstabbing traitor it's going to be the guy who never showed up in the first place."

"You have a point," Ozawa granted.

"Two dead, one missing, and one like..._that_," Saori enumerated their losses, waving a hand towards Reiko.

"This is what comes of not acting in concert," Ozawa said.

"I didn't hear you objecting to a lot of those failures you're whining about now, old man."

"I made foolish assumptions about the way things would work as Orochi. It is painfully clear now, however, that being avatars of the gods of destruction does not change the need for organization, planning, and concerted effort. I believed that Reiko had begun to understand that, but then she went off on her own once more and you see the result."

He clenched a hand into a fist, the anger mounting within him.

"We have a real chance to accomplish something, to wipe this blight-ridden world off the map forever. Whatever enemies gather against us, one thing is clear: it is our first duty to destroy the priestesses! This task was given to us when the voice of Orochi called us, at the very beginning. We have tried fighting her one-on-one and failed. We have tried increasing our power so that we _could_ defeat her one-on-one and also failed."

"And you think you have a better idea, soldier-boy?"

Ozawa's Shadow manifested in that instant, darkness sheathing his entire body like a samurai's armor, called forth by his mounting emotions. Blue-green fire played along his fists, and even Kei flinched in response.

"Basic _military_ strategy. This is no tournament, not some kind of competition. This is a war to impose the will of Orochi, _our_ will, on this world. The Lunar Priestess may well be a match for any one of us. Her new power may make her invincible in single combat. What of it? We shall _all_ descend on her and crush her with our full force as we should have done from the start. When she is dead, we can worry about other matters."

His gaze ripped over the three of them, even Akemi.

"And if there is any attempted betrayal, I swear that it will end _very_ badly for you."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: The "first bath together" that they discuss is the scene from the manga, Vol. 1, starting on page 78. Himeko liking yuri manga comes from the Drama CD, which technically takes place in the anime continuity rather than the manga, but I figured that manga-Himeko wouldn't be any _less_ of a yuri fan than anime-Himeko...and Hikari-Himeko _definitely_ would like yuri! _

_Some of you might be wondering at how easily Himeko consigned the hypothetical Solar Priestess who we haven't yet met to the "gets killed" role--a more selfish thought than one would necessarily associate with her. On the other hand, she's really the only person who's actually capable of saying whether getting consigned to the Lunar Shrine for the interval between cycles is truly an Awful Fate. Frankly, she takes it a lot better than Chikane takes to _not_ getting stuck there, so..._

_And on a real-life note, I'd like to thank all of those of you who've been reading and living reviews; _KnS_ has become my first story to reach triple digits in reviews, and I must say that I deeply appreciate that. Thank you!_


	15. The Battle at the Shrine

"What is this place?" Saori asked.

"The Ohgami Shrine," said Ozawa. "The place where, I believe, we'll find the Lunar Priestess."

"Here? Why?" said Kei. "We haven't gotten a whiff of her anywhere over the last two hours, and now you're suddenly convinced that this is it?"

"There are two reasons. One, this is the home of her sister's best friend."

"Huh?"

"Reiko told us all about Tsukuyo Asamiya, remember? Were you asleep in class?" Saori mocked him.

"When hunting, it is best to know the prey as one knows oneself," Akemi added, then said viciously, "We'll root out all her boltholes until she has nowhere left to hide."

"What bug crawled up your ass anyway, Sixth? You didn't get such a hate on after she kicked you around, but lately you've been talking like she's some kind of monster."

"You saw what she did to Reiko and you can still ask that? She didn't just fight her, she _preyed _on her, crippling her mind. I won't let a fiend like that survive."

Ozawa had suspected as much. A fellow Orochi she might be--indeed, one of his more reliable comrades--but the things that made her the Sixth Neck were just an extension of what had made her a serial killer, the sheer despair and rage at a world that spat forth those who preyed on women. The Lunar Priestess had crossed that line, and had drawn Akemi's personal, visceral hatred down on herself.

Not that it mattered, so long as it didn't affect Akemi's worth in a fight.

"Here is the second reason," Ozawa snapped, reining in the debates among his fractious allies. He manifested his Shadow to protect himself, then extended his hand towards the threshold, the gate marking the shrine entrance. Gold lightning flashed, and his hand was knocked back.

"A barrier?" Akemi exclaimed.

"A barrier against the Orochi, behind which she could hide unseen to our senses."

"Then what do we do?"

"We break it down."

-X X X-

Chikane and Reverend Ohgami felt it at the same instant, their heads snapping upright. The other three at the breakfast table looked at them, surprised by the sudden movement.

"What is it? Do you feel something?" Minako asked.

"The shrine barriers. They're--" Reverend Ohgami flinched, making him break off in mid-sentence. "They're under attack."

"The Orochi," Chikane confirmed. "I can feel their power." She got to her feet and led the rush away from the dining room and down the hall to the same window Himeko had waited at the night before. From there, she could see them at the entrance gate.

_Them._

"Three...no, four of them," the priest said, watching next to her.

"Will the boundary keep them out?" Marika asked.

"There's no chance," her aunt stated flatly. "The holy rites we practice have nowhere near the power of an Orochi or one of the priestesses. This shrine's connection to Ame no Murakumo strengthens the barrier somewhat, as does the fact that the priests have been performing the proper consecrations for generations on end, but they won't hold."

Chikane turned to the priest.

"Can you help me, Reverend Ohgami? I want you to take down the barrier before the Orochi break through, then raise it again."

He nodded.

"I can do that, but why?"

"To limit the power they can draw upon. It'll weaken them slightly to fight in this enclosed space. With these odds, I'll need all the help that I can gather."

"Fight!" Himeko exclaimed. "You can't fight four of them at once!"

"I don't have a choice. At this close range they'll be able to tell where I am once the barrier goes down. The best I can do is to choose the ground that I prefer for the fight." She paused as she felt another indrawing of power, the summoning of a Shadow. "Maybe not even that if we're not fast. Professor Ohgami, would you help Himeko and Marika get safely out of here?"

Minako nodded. She had a tight-lipped, serious expression. Marika just looked scared.

"Chikane!" Himeko protested.

"There's no time for this. I can't fight as well if I have to protect you, too, and you--"

"...I can't help. I...I understand."

She reached out, took Chikane's hand, and squeezed it.

"Please, stay safe. I...I'll be waiting."

Chikane squeezed back, then pulled her hand away. This was a bad situation, and she didn't expect that it would get any easier. She wished that she had time to change into her vestments--they had power of their own that could add to hers--but there wasn't any.

Professor Ohgami took Marika by the arm and started leading her back down the hall. Himeko gave Chikane a last, longing look, then turned and followed.

_Please don't let this be the last time I see her_, she thought, then tried her best to push that thought aside. Any mental slips of the kind she'd had fighting the Fifth Neck would mean her end in four-against-one odds.

She nodded to Reverend Ohgami, and the priest bowed his head, beginning to incant a prayer.

-X X X-

Twice now Kei had slashed the shrine's boundary with lightning, and once the black panther of Izuhara no Tamazuchi had raked it with claws. The barrier had held, but not strongly; it wasn't like the seals on the Orochi gods. Cloaked in the Shadow-armor of Take no Yamikazuchi, Ozawa punched towards the gate, a sphere of greenish-blue energy blasting from his fist with the motion. Instead of meeting resistance, it ripped through the empty space and blasted into the courtyard surface, scattering chunks of flagstones like shrapnel.

"The barrier's down! Go!" he snapped, and the four of them rushed through the inert _torii_. At once he sent his will out, hunting for the priestess.

"She's here!" Saori hissed triumphantly. "You were right!"

He _was_ right. She was present, and this time there would be no escape for her.

"Find her! Raze this place to the ground if you have to, but find her!" he ordered.

As he led the charge into the courtyard, it did not escape Ozawa how close this matter was to the one that had led to his downfall. An enemy in an enclosed space, a troop of soldiers at his back, and innocent persons potentially in the way. The only difference was that then he'd regretted the deaths of the innocents and now he just didn't care. If the Ohgamis got in the way, they could die now instead of waiting for Orochi to consume the world.

"You two take the residence," he told Kei and Saori. "We'll take the shrine itself."

He wondered for a moment what made him instinctively trust Akemi at his back. Was it just that she'd been with him when he learned about Abe? Even before that, he'd recommended that she be the one sent against the Lunar Priestess, so was there something else to it? Trust in her combat skills? Or maybe it was just that the focused purity of her hatred made her a known quantity, unlike the conflicted Reiko or the ego-driven Kei and Saori. If there was a traitor, it was least likely to be her.

At this point, though, all of them seemed focused on their present concern; they divided as he'd ordered without question. They had only taken a few steps, though, when the blow fell.

It was like a sudden, sharp spike driven into the base of Ozawa's brain. He flinched, his next step turning into an imitation of a drunkard's stagger. More importantly, his connection to Take no Yamikazuchi wavered; the Shadow-armor faded to translucence for a moment.

_The boundary!_ he realized. It hadn't fallen, but had been _taken_ down and then reestablished. Luckily the pain had only been momentary, at the instant it went back up and the spiritual tie disrupted before a new pattern could be established, but he'd be weaker; they all would.

It had been in that one moment, too, that the enemy struck.

-X X X-

In a fight against superior numbers, Chikane knew, her first priority was to reduce those numbers. She began to unleash arrows against them from the residence roof as they writhed from the sudden disruption of their connection to Orochi caused by Reverend Ohgami's quick action.

Three of her opponents she knew. The Sixth Neck she'd fought before; the man with her was undoubtedly the Seventh, as the attack he'd launched had been far too reminiscent of Souma Ohgami for him to be anything else. The other male was just as clearly the Second; Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi was absolutely unmistakable with its eye-tipped kraken's arms. Only the second woman was an unknown; was she the Third, Fourth, or Eighth?

Her first pair of arrows tore into Izuhara no Tamazuchi, taking the panther out of existence in the first moment. The third shot hit the Sixth Neck in the side. The fourth exploded in a blinding flash in front of the unknown woman and the fifth had been aimed at the Second Neck but was struck aside by a tentacle.

"Bitch!" he swore, and his Shadow struck at her. The tentacles ripped a hole in the residence roof where she'd been standing, but she was already in motion, leaping off the roof and drawing the Lunar Blade in mid-jump. She landed lightly in the middle of the courtyard, drawing upon her enhanced abilities as a priestess to make the leap, and charged the Sixth Neck.

The arrow wound should have incapacitated her or at least slowed more than it had, but she whirled to meet Chikane, a knife in her hand.

"Monster!" she hissed, charging as if unaware of the blood pouring down her side. "I'll slice you apart for what you did to Reiko! How could anyone be such a fiend?"

There was a haunted look in the blue-haired woman's eyes, reminding Chikane of their first fight. She'd felt guilt then, a crushing weight of it that had nearly cost her life, but that had been about Himeko.

That had mattered.

The only thing the Orochi's accusations--and what they implied about Reiko's absence from the fight--inspired in Chikane was satisfaction that her tactics had been effective. There was nothing to make her hesitate. Her first cut severed the Neck's knife hand at the wrist; her second cut took off the woman's head.

_One down._

There was no room for any pause, no time for even a moment of triumph; she ducked and rolled forward as the Seventh punched one of his glowing orbs at her. The attack shot over her head and exploded harmlessly somewhere, but a trembling beneath her warned her a second before flame-tipped, insectlike mandibles burst through the flagstones, slashing the air behind her before vanishing.

_Ooube no Senazuchi!_ Chikane realized. That identified the unknown Orochi as the Fourth Neck, for whatever it was worth. There was little time to digest that information, as the Second Neck was sending another spear-strike with his Shadow's tentacles at her. Chikane dodged, then as the extrusions struck home in the courtyard's surface she slashed them, severing their tips. The stumps recoiled, writhing, and she knew she'd hurt it. It would definitely regenerate, though, so it only gave her a limited window of opportunity.

That was the problem with being outnumbered. Even though one-on-one she was more powerful and probably more skilled than any of them, Chikane couldn't stop to use that power against one Orochi without exposing herself to the others.

_The Fourth is probably the weakest_, Chikane thought. _She's all but hiding behind the Second._ With the Second weakened, this was a chance to close in and Chikane took it, zigzagging towards them to throw off the Seventh's aim. Another of the sparkling orbs flashed by her, blasting a chunk out of the veranda, and the Second cut her off. He was a boy Chikane's own age or even younger, dressed like an urban punk. The sneer, the pose marked him as a wannabe tough guy, not so different from Reiko in that he was a man of frustrated ambitions and thwarted dreams. He threw a punch at her that she sidestepped easily, then a spinning high kick that spoke more of long hours watching ninja movies than long hours at the _dojo_. She ducked the sweeping foot and cut his plant leg out from under him, nearly severing it at the knee, before moving on the Fourth. Chikane lunged at her with a thrust she hoped would incapacitate at least, but something coiled around her ankle, tripping her.

Even as she went down, she realized what had happened: the Second Neck had caught her with the stump of a tentacle. She hadn't given him credit for the will to fight through his wound and keep focus. Chikane cut her way free, but the Fourth had been given time to react. Summoning her Shadow, she was suddenly surrounded by a cluster of black, chittering, clicking bugs, swirling around her like a turning wheel. They began to glow, turning orange, then red, and them burst into flame while launching themselves at Chikane like a stream of tracer rounds. Desperately, she spun the Lunar Blade in an arc, its tip describing a crude circle of protection, but without mobility she was forced to block the entire force of the attack with power alone. The fire built with each insect that drilled against her shield, then burst in an explosion that knocked her sprawling. Chikane grunted as her back smacked against the grassy border between the flagged court and the residence building, then her head hit a second later, making her vision swim for an instant. Luckily she hadn't hit the stone, but she was in a bad position.

Suddenly, the voice of Reverend Ohgami rang out boldly. The priest had emerged from the door, chanting in a firm voice. His voice soared, he thrust his hand towards the Orochi, and bright blue lightning burst around them, crackling across their bodies. They writhed in pain, the injured Second toppling while the Fourth and Seventh twitched. Chikane looked up in surprise as the priest sagged heavily against the rail. Perspiration dotted his face and he was breathing heavily; calling on the shrine's power had obviously taken a lot out of him.

"Reverend...?"

"As the priest of the Ohgami Shrine, it is my duty to guide and protect Ame no Murakumo's miko." He smiled faintly at her. "I will not let this sanctuary against the Orochi be violated without a fight."

She smiled back at him, then pushed herself to her feet.

"I doubt I'll be able to protect you," she said honestly.

"I can apologize to Marika when the world is revived."

"You won't remember that you'd need to."

"Then neither will she," he said with a wry humor Chikane hadn't known that he possessed.

She launched herself at the Seventh Neck, who was the first to recover from Ohgami's assault. He stood his ground and faced her rush calmly, deflecting her first strike with his Shadow-armor and counterpunching. Unlike his street-punk associate, his moves were smooth and efficient, showing the unmistakable signs of training. At close range, it struck her that his face was a familiar one. After another exchange, it came to her.

_Junichi Ozawa--the one the press called the "Slaughterer of Sendai."_ That explained his fighting skills: he'd had military training.

"At least you're consistent, Major Ozawa," she said. "I guess obeying orders to murder innocent people is a specialty now?"

He wasn't Reiko, but Chikane saw the doubt flicker in his eyes. She was sure he wouldn't break in the same way--he was a grown man, not a teenage girl with major self-esteem problems and a personal link to her--but she'd hit on it, the source of his despair and rage, that which made him Orochi. She struck at it, ruthlessly, even as she assaulted his body.

"That's it, isn't it? You were innocent, weren't you? _You_ didn't give the order to fire. _You_ didn't want to kill all those people. It was someone else, wasn't it?"

She used her reach to hold him back, to keep him at bay for the next clash.

"All _you_ were was too much of a sniveling coward to say no."

_Got you_.

Chikane saw the rage rise in him, the burst of temper that threw his attention off. Power gathered to Ozawa's fist and he punched another blast at her at point-blank range. The anger had thrown off his rhythm, the moment to summon his attack delayed him, and Chikane wasn't in front of it. Instead she slashed under his upraised arm, putting all her strength into the cut. Her sword disrupted the armor, dispelling it to translucence, and ripped a deep cut along his torso. As he was still off-balance, she hooked his leg, got one hand on his upper arm, and flipped him over to slam hard onto his back on the flagstones. Chikane whirled, sword ready to spear through his chest and finish him when the scream cut her off.

She shouldn't have looked. It was just a glance--a reflex spawned by his coming to her rescue, that brief moment of shared understanding between them. It would have made Himeko happy; she was the one who kept insisting that there was something good, some basic humanity within Chikane that could still be touched by others.

But she shouldn't have looked.

In that moment when she turned her head, when she saw Ohgami's body being spitted on the flaming mandibles of Ooube no Senazuchi the way she'd almost been, she lost her advantage. Ozawa acted in that instant, slapping his hand against the flat of her sword so that her stab only scored along his ribs instead of spitting him through the heart. He kicked at her legs, trying to knock her down, and she avoided it only by skipping aside.

That, though, opened space between the two of them, and gave the Second Neck a chance to act. Before Chikane's eyes, his Shadow restored itself, the severed tentacles regrowing until they were complete again, and in the tips of all six an eye opened, leering at her with the same triumphant cruelty as its Neck.

Then six bolts of violet lightning lashed at her, one from each eye.

Chikane parried them as they converged, knocking them aside. She knew that she couldn't stop them all, so she concentrated on deflecting what she could, sending bolts back at the Second and Fourth. Two bolts, though, struck her; they lifted the Lunar Priestess off her feet and left her sprawled at the base of the shrine steps.

The taste of copper was in her mouth; hot, red pain obscured her concentration, drowning thought. Fear surged inside her, the animal instinct fighting to recover, to clear her head. If she'd been properly wearing the Lunar Priestess's vestments this wouldn't have happened, the thought drifted past, even though she couldn't--quite--recall what "this" was.

_Focus, Chikane_.

It seemed like hours but was probably no more than a couple of seconds before the red cloud cleared from her brain and she began to struggle to her feet. The Necks she'd counterattacked seemed even more damaged than she was: the Second had managed to nearly clear the entire board in a single move, like a petulant child sweeping his arm across a chess game.

Nearly.

The Seventh was upon her before she could get to her feet. His Shadow had returned; the damage she'd inflicted on his body was no doubt regenerating. He fisted his hand in the front of her T-shirt and lifted her the rest of the way up, then clear off the ground. That was when it got through Chikane's pain-dazed mind that her hands were empty, the Lunar Blade knocked from her grip by the lightning strike. Off the ground she didn't have any leverage to use against him, she couldn't pierce his armor with her bare hands alone, and his arm, fully extended, kept her from being able to reach his face and the vulnerable points there.

"You're finished," he said simply, drawing back his fist, no doubt to blow her head off with another energy sphere.

Then his eyes went black and unseeing. Blood spurted from his lips. Chikane glanced down just in time to see the armor fade away, dispelled by the same sword that emerged from his chest. His grip slackened in death, and Chikane managed to catch her balance as Ozawa fell dead between her and the one who'd killed him.

"Professor Ohgami?"

The red-trimmed kimono jacket and crimson _hakama_ were all too familiar. The sword in her hand was the twin of Chikane's own. The blaze of light from the mark on her chest, so searingly bright even through her clothing that it made Chikane squint, was what made for absolute confirmation.

"You're the Solar Priestess? But...but why didn't you tell any of us?"

Minako smiled thinly.

"Why didn't I? That's quite a good question. Then again, you always were a good student, Tsukuyo--or should I just call you Chikane now? It _is_ your 'real' name, at least the one you think of yourself as, after all. Just why _did_ I carefully keep silent about it all this time?" She tapped her finger against her lip in a parody of a thoughtful expression. "Let's see...oh, that's right."

A shadow passed across the sky, and the sun symbol's light went out like a snuffed candle. Minako's eyes filled with seething violet fire.

"It's because I'm the Eighth Neck, as well."

The shadow seemed to swallow the courtyard as the war-cry of a hawk shattered the stillness. It dove out of the sky as if plummeting from the depths of space, a titanic demon, its wingspan at least a hundred yards across. Its talons crashed into the boundary enclosing the shrine and tore it apart like it was paper, the gates blasted to splinters along with several trees in the surrounding woods, the anchor points of the barrier destroyed by the unsealed god, Yokusemi no Mizuchi.

In this incarnation, Orochi's eighth head looked much like a gigantic brown eagle, the edges of its sagging feathers crusted with black rot, its eyes a baleful crimson, its beak, feet, and claws all dark as if carved from obsidian. The sheer power of its presence alone was all but overwhelming; the remaining Necks could barely stand up in the face of it and even Chikane was struck with horror. It seemed almost unthinkable that this demon had once been tied to her own soul--indeed, that she'd cast it aside in favor of the even fiercer Take no Yamikazuchi.

It swung its massive head towards the two quivering Necks, opened its beak, and let loose a piercing screech. The air _rippled_, waves traveling outward from the god's maw. The scream, Chikane realized, wasn't just its voice, but an attack, a sonic wave generated by the demon's power. The Ohgami residence wasn't so much destroyed as vaporized, blasted to dust, as was a good chunk of the forest behind. The Second and Fourth Necks, who had been forcefully wielding their power only a moment ago, were torn apart, their Shadows and their bodies blown away as one.

Chikane bolted for her sword, but the demon was faster; its talons lashed out, pinning her down spread-eagled on her back, holding her with exactly enough pressure to keep her immobile and no more. There was nothing she could do against a foe that so completely overmatched her.

_Is this how Himeko felt in our last life? Helpless, overmatched, entirely dependent on someone else to protect her?_

"Why?" Chikane asked. "Why are you doing this, Professor?"

"I'm glad you asked. It's annoying, wanting to say something this whole week and not being able to. I only wished my brother was still alive so I could say it to him, and then kill him myself."

"Kill...Reverend Ohgami?"

_Keep her talking. The longer she talks, the more time there is for me to think of something!_

Her face twisted into a mask of hate.

"I was the eldest Ohgami child. That meant that I was to be the priestess of this shrine--male and female don't matter to the family for that. I was trained in the rites and rituals by which we honor the _kami_, the legends that we hand down, the 'sacred duty' we are supposed to play as your guides and support. As a child I was an eager and enthusiastic follower of our ways, hoping--yes, _hoping_--that your arrival would be during my term and that I could play my part."

That sounded so unlike the Minako Ohgami that Chikane knew--not the Orochi but just the woman, the aunt, the professor--that she could barely believe it. Her feelings clearly showed, too; Minako smiled wryly at her.

"You find it hard to imagine me as a devout little girl, Chikane?"

"What changed it?"

The smile vanished.

"I went into the world. I attended school., I read history. I learned about current events, and what I saw made me sick. As a priestess I was supposed to become a guardian of a sacred tradition, a guide so people could live happy lives. Instead I saw that far from being sacred, religion was nothing but a sham. Marx called it the opiate of the masses, a tool to keep them in line, but he was wrong. Religion isn't a tool, but a poison in and of itself. It's a bunch of made-up ideas people imagine so they don't have to feel alone and helpless in a universe they don't understand. The ideas have no support, no proof, no evidence, so people cling to every scrap of them without thinking and call it 'faith.' Then, if anything tries to challenge those ideas, they try to destroy it so they don't have to examine their beliefs and see that they're nothing but worthless hot air.

"You can't escape it when you look at history! People demand answers to question no one can know the answers to, and the priests make those answers up. Then, if someone _finds_ the answers, the 'faithful' fight tooth and nail to suppress the truth. And because religion is so important to these people, it doesn't just fight with science but even more so with other religions! Racial and cultural superiority is always based on it. Our way is better than your way! Your imaginary afterlife is different than our imaginary afterlife, so we have to kill you! Shintoist or Bhuddist, Christian or Jew, Moslem or Hindu, they're all the same. Every atrocity in history is rooted in some arrant stupidity characterized as 'faith.'

"It made me _sick_."

She took several deep breaths, reining in the building fury.

"So I abandoned faith. I abandoned belief and put my trust only in what could be proven. And my family just smiled their supercilious little smiles and said things like 'for those who do not believe, no proof will suffice' and other pithy axioms which boil down to Because I Said So. And Takeshi swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. It's _always_ been there between us, that utter _arrogance_ that sooner or later I'd 'come around,' that I'd fall in line with the family duties sooner or later."

"Then why did you agree to move to the shrine when Marika's mother died?" Chikane asked.

"Because I wanted to make sure that my niece didn't have her mind poisoned by their corruption! Even if she does have faith in the beliefs of the shrine, at least she uses them for what they're supposed to be, a guide to decency instead of a voice to drown out all rationality or an excuse to commit all sorts of corrupt acts." Her lips quirked upwards. "You know, such as having an incestuous affair because of a _belief_ that you are reincarnated lovers?" Minako chuckled at Chikane's sudden surge of anger. "Oh, don't make that face; I know now that it was true all along."

_Control yourself,_ Chikane thought. _Stay calm and think!_

"Isn't incest itself just another religious taboo, though? So what difference would it make if we _were_ deluding ourselves?" she stalled for time.

Professor Ohgami laughed.

"Chikane, nearly every myth-cycle in every religion is _filled_ with incest, particularly among the gods. It's taboo because it's disruptive to _human_ society, by damaging the family unit through confusing the roles people occupy in connection to one another. That it's passed off as God's commandment is the biggest joke about it.

"But you haven't asked the most obvious question yet."

"You hated religion because it was a lie. But you're a Neck of Orochi. You _know_ that the gods are real. So your own despair is a paradox!"

"Is it?" Minako pretended to ponder the issue. "Just because I didn't _believe_ in the gods didn't mean that I wasn't paying attention. One deity which represents the combined malice of humanity intent only on destroying everything in its path, and another deity who opposes the first with such callous cruelty that it inspired in _its own champion_ enough pain and hatred to switch sides? It seems to me that my impression of religion was absolutely correct--and that its legacy of violence and hatred is _exactly in accord with the gods_.

She looked down at Chikane, shaking her head.

"Now, can you explain to me why a world like that should be permitted to exist, Lunar Priestess?"

She chuckled again, the pure arrogance of it making Chikane's gut twist.

"But as entertaining as this has been, I need something from you. Specifically, the blood of a pure priestess to break the final seal on Yamata no Orochi. Another of those idiotic rules of the gods; I can't see why the existence or lack of one membrane within the body constitutes 'purity.' After all, who seems _purer_ to you, a woman in her forties who's had a few love affairs or a girl of nineteen who's been consensually bedded by her sister for...what is it, now, six years? Seven?" She shook her head. "But there it is."

Standing over Chikane, she pressed the tip of the Solar Blade against Chikane's shoulder and sliced down her left arm. Chikane winced at the sudden pain, but didn't cry out. She didn't want to give the other woman the satisfaction.

"And there we have it," Minako declared, holding up the sword, its tip now glistening with blood. "I hope that you and dear Himeko enjoy the show. There'll be plenty of fireworks, and the ending's a real killer."

With that, Professor Ohgami vanished into black fire. Yokusemi no Mizuchi spread its massive wings and launched itself into the air, receding into the sky so fast that in seconds it was barely a fleaspeck, leaving Chikane staring up at nothing. The shrine courtyard was still and silent, yet the Lunar Priestess could still hear the echoes of her world crashing down around her ears.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: And now you can stop wondering about "who?" and start asking "how?" and "why?" about the Solar Priestess! Deep congratulations are due anyone whose attention was grabbed at the first by an atheist from a shrine family and wondered if there was more to that story, with lesser but still distinct clue-spotting bonus points for those of you who might have noted that while Reverend Ohgami was with the girls during the unsealing ritual, Minako and Marika were both free to be off killing Abe, and that it was Minako's research and advice passed on by Takeshi to Chikane that brought Chikane to fight Hirata and give the Eighth the chance to unseal Yokusemi no Mizuchi--since Minako was the only one who was suspect in both matters, she was therefore the Eighth Neck. I know I'm evil with the cliffhangers and all, but I tried to at least play somewhat fair with the story's major mystery._


	16. Final Prayers

Himeko sprinted through the woods, lungs on fire and legs aching with every step. It felt just like when she had been fleeing from the Sixth Neck, only that time she'd been running away from danger and now she was running towards it.

_They'd been fleeing for a couple of minutes, weaving through the trees. Professor Ohgami was leading the way, but she looked back over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure that the girls were with her. Himeko hated that she was abandoning Chikane to fight alone, but her twin was right. She couldn't help, and the Orochi would certainly try to use her against her beloved._

_Minako turned her head again, then stopped in her tracks and turned around. Marika spun, too, wondering what her aunt was seeing, and a quizzical expression crossed her face._

_"Huh? What's--"_

_Himeko was about to turn and see, too, when Professor Ohgami took a step forward and in a motion so smooth as to be almost instantaneous, reached out, caught Marika by the neck and shoulder, and snapped her spine._

_The scream caught in Himeko's throat so all that emerged was a terrified whimper._

_"Why...why did you do that?" she forced out through a voice that was suddenly choking off with tears._

_"Because I've always liked her, and I wanted her death to be clean and easy, without suffering," Minako replied matter-of-factly._

_"You...you're Orochi!" Himeko gasped, backing away on suddenly shaking legs. _Chikane! I have to warn Chikane!

_"Yes."_

_She waved her hand and a glowing violet seal blazed up on the ground beneath Himeko's feet. When she hit the edge she was stopped cold, as if the glowing symbol was only the base of a cylinder._

_"Stay there for a while," the professor told her. "I have to go see your sister, and I don't want you interfering."_

_"Chikane!" Himeko screamed, finally finding her voice. "Chikane!"_

_"Feel free to shout all you like; sound only travels one way through that seal. I thought you might distract her, otherwise. Perhaps I'll tell her hello for you?_

Himeko had beat on the seal with her fists, tried scraping away the markings on the ground with her shoe but nothing worked. She'd been forced to wait there, terrified of what the professor would do to Chikane, until the seal finally vanished. She immediately set off at a dead run to get to Chikane, hoping against hope that she'd find her twin alive and well.

The run took only a few minutes but seemed to last an eternity before she came out of the woods. The shrine residence was just _gone_, together with a large chunk of the forest behind it. The courtyard looked like it had been shelled by artillery, and four figures could be seen. Two men and a woman were sprawled, still and unmoving, but the fourth...

"Chikane!"

Tears were streaming down Himeko's face when she reached the other girl.

"You're all right! I was so scared, Chikane! Professor Ohgami is an Orochi! She killed Marika, and I thought she--" Belatedly, she realized that Chikane's eyes were shadowed, her face as black and hopeless as she'd ever seen in this life. "Ch-Chikane?"

"I know, Himeko," she said softly, no, dully. "Not just an Orochi, but the Solar Priestess as well."

"The Solar Priestess too? How?"

Chikane shook her head.

"I don't know, but she is. She had the mark, and the full power of Yokusemi no Mizuchi besides. She destroyed three of the other Necks--I'd already killed one--then held me down, helpless. I couldn't do anything at all to fight her. Then she took my blood, so that she could wholly unseal Orochi itself." She held out her arm, where she'd bound the slash up with a strip off her T-shirt. Red had seeped through; the wound probably would need stitches at the very least if Chikane hadn't been Lunar Priestess.

"Then she's going to summon Yamata no Orochi?"

Chikane nodded.

"I don't see how anything can stop her."

-X X X-

Minako landed lightly on the eighth _torii_ as she arrived in the Orochi shrine. Anger and hatred hammered at her in palpable waves, not directed _at_ her precisely but at the totality of the world, at all existence. There was a certain purity to it; Yamata no Orochi's malice was so all-encompassing that it transcended boundaries. Even the despised miko of Ame no Murakumo who had sealed it so many times were not held worse than any other human; they were merely its enemies.

"Don't worry; I'm going to let you out to play in a minute," she said up at the dark sun. "But first things...well, First things...first."

She leapt from her gate across to the only one still occupied by a Neck. At close range, the ruin of Reiko Himemiya actually made her flinch, not so much from sympathy but from the realization that this was precisely what Chikane had hoped to accomplish in that battle.

"Scary girl," she remarked. It kind of proved her point, though, when the _good_ side was represented by someone like _that._

Reiko whimpered when Minako bent down and yanked the black sword from her grasp. The solar mark glowed fiercely from the older woman's chest and black fire ran up and down her arms as she summoned her power as a priestess and an Orochi both.

Then she snapped the Shadow of Take no Sukunazuchi over her knee. The sword dissolved into nothingness, and Reiko squealed, more like a wounded animal than a person. Minako grabbed her by the shirtfront, holding her up at arm's length easily with the enhanced strength of a fully empowered Neck.

"If it's any consolation to you, what I have in mind for Chikane will be much worse than this."

She opened her hand, and the girl plummeted through the clouds, echoed by a dull thud a moment later. The surge of malice from Orochi's eye above confirmed the death.

"And now no human wills remain to confuse or distract. The eight gods will act as one, guided only by my intent."

She returned to her own gate and faced the center of her shrine.

"Yokusemi no Mizuchi!" she shouted. The demon appeared behind her gate, throwing no shadow in the sunless temple of Orochi.

_"Beneath darkness are gathered the eight ancient gods:"_ she intoned.

_"Take no Sukunazuchi!"_

Behind the First Neck's gate, a towering shape began to manifest, shadowed armor with rotting black wings, a straight sword in the ancient Chinese style held point-downward in its gauntlets. It was translucent, even wavering--a mere Shadow of itself without the tangible force of Minako's own god, but it was there, manifested at her command.

_"Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi!"_

A tentacled horror like a massive worm with a forest of eye-tipped and claw-tipped tentacles seething and twisting around its hideous maw.

_"Hi no Ashinazuchi!"_

A hulking, hunchbacked giant whose quadruple-sized right arm was only its most obvious deformity.

_"Ooube no Senazuchi!"_

A centipede-like creature with an antlion's mandibles wreathed in hungry flames.

_"Ho no Shuraizuchi!"_

A titanic humanlike head, only with two faces, one wreathed in hatred and one in despair, slowly rotating to show both sides. Stark madness stared out of all four eyes.

_"Izuhara no Tamazuchi!"_

A great black panther, the length of its body studded by irregular-shaped eyes and leering, fanged maws.

_"Take no Yamikazuchi!"_

A second armored figure, this one like a samurai with a full-face mask of a fanged devil, but bearing no weapon in its gauntleted hands.

_"Yokusemi no Mizuchi!"_

The hawk-demon screamed its hatred and defiance to the heavens.

_"Now is the time for all to become one!"_

She unsheathed the Solar Blade and extended it before her.

_"Orochi is darkness!"_

The dried blood that smeared its tip began to shimmer.

_"Orochi is the snake that twists in the core of the world!"_

As if absorbing moisture from somewhere, it started to glisten.

_"Orochi is mankind's malice!"_

Liquid again, the droplets began to trail down the steel.

_"Orochi is the darkness born from between the stars!"_

The first drop separated from the blade, but instead of falling it flew _upward_, rising towards the hungry eye above.

_"Orochi is the name of the gods!"_

Eight inhuman, monstrous voiced roared a crescendo as the blood-drops rose.

_"Yamata no Orochi is the will that binds those gods together!"_

A ringing chime seemed to echo through Orochi's shrine, like the tolling of a funeral bell.

And the dark eye began to grow and swell.

-X X X-

Throughout the town of Mahoroba, the earth shook. Seven seals were torn asunder as the will of Yamata no Orochi called to its imprisoned body. Titanic pillars of violet-streaked darkness reared into the sky; those who looked at them shuddered and turned their heads away. The darklights seemed to radiate shadow, not as the mere absence of light but as an inherent, positive quality that could stand by itself.

The pillars extended into the sky, joined by an eighth that seemed to conjure from thin air. They converged, as if drawing together as they reached for a single point in the sky, soaring towards the pale silver of a daylight moon.

-X X X-

The seal was broken.

Staring up at the eye of Orochi, Minako could see that the dark sun wasn't a "sun" or "eye" at all, but a window. With the seal that was its "glass" broken, the unfettered power of the god poured forth in a seething cloud of blackness. The eight gods--all now fully incarnate--stared up at it, trembling with restrained eagerness to fulfill their sole purpose.

Then Minako screamed as the will of Orochi filled her. The pain was excruciating; power no human was meant to command tore at her soul. But where the Orochi's force was chaotic and unfocused, its Eighth Neck's will remained pure and controlled. The light blazed forth from her chest, enhancing, focusing the chaos of Orochi into a single path.

_Her_ path.

Perhaps none but one of Ame no Murakumo's miko could have carried this burden, mastering the will of the totality of Orochi as the Necks did with their individual gods. Even then, "mastery" was a hypothetical concept at best.

But then again, the only command Minako wanted to give was the one the god wanted to carry out anyway.

"Go!" she roared into the darkness. "Go and tear this miserable world to pieces!"

-X X X-

It was as if all nature had turned on itself at once. Volcanoes erupted, spewing pillars of magma and ash high into the atmosphere. The seas rose, thousand-foot tsunami cresting over coastal cities. In the hearts of the deserts, winds rose, sirocco that raged with such intensity that stone and metal were scoured away to nothing. Fire engulfed forests and jungles; ice storms of impossible intensity blasted the polar regions, instantly sheathing entire cities in foot-thick layers of frost.

And everywhere, everywhere, people died.

-X X X-

In Mahoroba, the shaking had never stopped. Buildings fell; fissures opened in the ground. Ruptured gas lines supplied fuel for sparks and whatever wasn't being hurled down seemed to be set alight. The screams of the dying rose from the valley.

In the shattered courtyard of the Ohgami Shrine, Himako clung to Chikane, tears streaming down her face.

"Mother...Father...everyone!" she whimpered. "Chikane, isn't there anything we can do?"

"She's really done it," Chikane said, cradling her beloved close but not looking at her, instead looking up into the sky, at the seething blot of darkness on the face of the moon so immense that she could see it from earth. "She's summoned Yamata no Orochi and unleashed it upon the world. Only Ame no Murakumo can stop what is to come, and without both priestesses we can't summon the god. Professor Ohgami isn't a virgin, so she'd have to shed my blood to break the seal, and I can't see her...cooperating..."

Her voice trailed off, causing Himeko to lift her face away from her twin's chest to look at her.

"Chikane?"

Then Chikane laughed. It was not a nice laugh. It was a cruel laugh, the merriment of a person taking pleasure in the misery of an enemy. Yet to Himeko it was as sweet as the music Chikane could coax from the piano. Her eyes widened, and she could feel her smile grow as hope filled her, driving out grief and fear.

"She doesn't _need_ to cooperate. She already _has_!" She let go of Himeko and touched her bandage. "Isn't this the blood of a pure priestess as shed by the other?"

"Then...you can...?"

Chikane shook her head.

"No, _we_ can. You and I. It takes two people, after all."

"But I don't have--" Himeko began, but stopped suddenly, her face lighting up as memory struck her. "Oh! Souma!"

"Exactly! Last time he filled in for me. This time, you can fill in for...well, yourself." Chikane was _not_ going to give that lying traitor the honor of acknowledging her as the rightful Solar Priestess. "Let's go."

They ran as fast as they could from the courtyard to the hidden shrine. The ground continued to tremble beneath their feet as they traveled, and more than once Himeko lost her balance, having to be caught by Chikane to keep from falling.

"I'm sorry," she said when she stumbled a third time. "I'm such a klutz; I can't seem to keep my feet under me while the ground's shaking like this."

"Don't worry," Chikane told her while helping her up. "I'm sure you'll get your 'sea legs' in a minute."

Truthfully, Chikane was more worried about how the _cave_ would react to the quaking earth. How much stress could it take? If the holy place was buried, could Ame no Murakumo even be called?

Her fears were not borne out, though. The cave entrance was right where it should have been, open and unblocked. When they took their first steps inside, they were surprised by why.

"Oh! The ground is stable in here!" Himeko exclaimed.

"You're right. I wonder why? When we performed the ritual of unsealing, the boundaries were destroyed, so this shouldn't be an enclosed space. And even so, the earthquakes are because of the power of Orochi, so they should be able to break down barriers in ways that natural events couldn't."

"Maybe it's because they're caused by Orochi?" Himeko tentatively suggested.

"Oh?"

Chikane called on her power to illuminate the dark passage, a soft moonglow washing through it.

"Well...the quakes are like Orochi's attack on the earth itself, and the shrine is the one point in the world closest to Ame no Murakumo, right?" the blonde tried to explain. She wasn't sure if she was saying it right, but Chikane understood her right away.

"So perhaps it's more resistant to Orochi's power than other places?" She placed the flat of her hand against the passage wall, feeling the faintest of vibrations coming through the rock, and set the thought aside. Ultimately it didn't matter, not unless the cave came down on their heads.

Quickly they came to the shore of the underground lake and picked their way through the broken gates until they came to the end of the stone pier beneath the great rock. Chikane took a deep breath, then gripped Himeko's hands with her own.

"Are you ready?"

Himeko nodded.

"Um-hm!"

"Okay, then."

Chikane unwound the bandage from her arm, then drew the Lunar Blade and extended the hilt towards Himeko. Her twin took the blade, her left hand and Chikane's right holding the hilt, combining to form a two-handed swordsman's grip.

_"Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi:"_

Himeko's voice joined with hers as easily as it had before. Solar Priestess or not, her soul knew the words.

_"With the Mutsu Sword, we begin the ritual to cease the god."_

Chikane extended the slip of bloodstained fabric.

_"In my hand, the Moon bleeds that which..."_

She let it fall, slipping away into the water.

_"Your sword, the Sun has shed."_

She could feel it! The power was gathering, it was _working_.

_"Descend, God of Swordsmen, Ame no Murakumo!"_

Here was perhaps the hardest part. Chikane had to _pray_ for the god's revival, not just perform the ritual but actually crave it, wish for it in her heart of hearts. If there was anything she wasn't good at, it was submitting to the will of another. She glanced at Himeko, who smiled hopefully at her, and Chikane realized how stupid her last thought had been.

_Please, let me make her smile shine forever._

Golden lightning crackled up and down the split face of the great stone.

-X X X-

On the moon, a shrine lay in ruins. It had been shattered, torn apart from within by a tremendous force. Here the will of Yamata no Orochi had lain sealed, and in its release only destruction lay in its wake. Yet more slept here than just darkness. So too did its eternal guardian reside, awaiting the call that rose to it from the dying planet like a spark of light. Since it had felt the first stirrings of the sealed god it had awaited that call, and when at last the prayer reached it the response was immediate. A pillar of light as brilliantly glowing as those of Orochi had been dark arose from the shrine and descended across the gulf of space in an instant like a great silver sword slashing the heavens.

-X X X-

The world exploded in silver light around Himeko. The mountain itself seemed to vanish; the cavern was thrown open to the sky by the descending power of the god. The brilliance seemed to surround her, infusing every part of her being. It sang through her body, restoring her inside and out. The presence was almost unbearable, as if the light filled her up to near-bursting, but it was also somehow sweet, and familiar. As Solar Priestess she'd borne this burden easily; as a normal girl it was hard, even terrible, but she managed--_more_ than managed--to cope.

When her sight cleared she found herself next to Chikane, within a sphere of brilliant silver radiance. Chikane seemed fully healed; there was no sign of her injuries from the battle and her jeans and T-shirt had vanished, replaced by her priestess garb. It, too, showed no sign of damage; her vestments were neither torn nor stained. Himeko's clothes had changed, too, replaced by robes identical to the priestesses' but snowy white, without color.

"It worked!" She clapped her hands giddily. "Now we can save everyone, Chikane!"

Chikane smiled sweetly at her.

"You'll never change, will you?"

"Um, did I say something wrong?"

"No, Himeko, you said something very right."

"Oh...okay." She wasn't quite sure that she understood, but if Chikane was happy, then she wasn't going to worry about it.

Chikane extended a hand to her, and Himeko took it, lacing their fingers together.

"Let's go."

"Mmn!"

They streaked upwards, suspended within the sphere of light. The power of Ame no Murakumo carried them high above the shattered mountain, higher and higher until the air was so thin they would never have been able to breathe without the god's aid. The barrier surrounding them sustained their existence, preventing mere environmental concerns from touching them.

"Look," Chikane said. "It's already the beginning of the end."

Himeko followed the direction of her sister's gaze, seeing the curve of the earth stretch out before them. It was tearing itself apart, as if the planet's core was expanding, swelling obscenely within its shell so that the plates of its crust were separated on the suddenly larger mantle. Great walls of flame spewed thousands of feet upwards along the edges, forming a hellish web across the earth's surface.

"We have to beat Orochi and Professor Ohgami," she urged. "It's the only way."

_It's so strange_, Himeko thought_. This is just like my past life. The planet in ruins and I'm flying to confront the one responsible, but I feel so different_. Then she hadn't been going to fight, but to find Chikane, to learn why she'd done such things to the world and, yes, to her. Now, Chikane was at her side, and it really felt like there would be a battle. She hoped she'd be able to do her part; so far it had been Chikane who'd had to bear the weight of all the fighting, and Himeko didn't want her to have to do it all alone.

"There's only one place she can be," Chikane decided.

"The Lunar Shrine?"

"Yes...there! I can feel her presence. The power of Ame no Murakumo can always seek out his priestesses." She turned to Himeko and smiled. "Are you ready?"

"Uh-huh!"

In an instant they were hurled across the gulf of space, flying from Earth to the moon in seconds. Below them they could see the ruined shrine, its walls sundered, the stairway hurled down by the escape of the unsealed demon. They could see her there, the lone figure of the Solar Priestess, and they arrowed towards her. Minako looked up, but she showed no sign of surprise. Instead, a smug little smile played around her lips.

Then eight mouths opened. Eight voices shook the heavens with their fury and hate, malice and despair, and the great bulk of Yamata no Orochi reared up to engulf them.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: Manga Himeko's most telling characteristic, apart from her love for Chikane, has to be her strength of will. She isn't particularly smart, she's not perceptive at all (witness her repeatedly thinking Chikane was in love with Souma...), she's physically weak, she's easily scared...and she recovers from extreme trauma in a matter of_ panels_. She shrugs off being raped without even the short-term shock that anime Himeko goes through, she sees the world destroyed (including the death of Makoto and Kazuki) but immediately refocuses on finding Chikane, and she sees _Chikane kill Souma right in front of her_ and in less than two full pages she's saving Chikane's life (better yet, within four pages she's asking Chikane "Why did you have to do that?"--Chikane thinks she's talking about killing Souma, but Himeko's already brushed that off--see pp. 185-190)._

_I mention this just in case anyone's wondering about how easily Himeko deals with Marika being killed in this chapter._

_Basically, while Himeko can be startled or horrified by the _initial_ shock of an act of violence or tragedy, she's capable of accepting it immediately and moving on without dwelling upon it. She is much, _much_ tougher, mentally speaking, than Chikane is. I suppose it's an open question whether it was this quality of hers that made Ame no Murakumo select her as a priestess, or whether she's gone slightly around the bend from too many centuries in solitary confinement within the Lunar Shrine. I'm a romantic, so I tend to pick the former._

_Minako's incantation is adapted from two of Chikane's monologues to Orochi in Vol. 2 of the manga, while Chikane's is _very_ loosely adapted from Himeko's summoning in Episode 11 of the anime._

_As for Ame no Murakumo's power being expressed by _silver_ radiance rather than gold, that came from the fact that in the anime, when Himeko and Souma are flying the AnM mech, it's colored silver and blue. It only turns golden later on after the confession scene in Episode 12. The manga's black-and-white pages don't permit us to see the particular color scheme, but it's clear that when Himeko calls back the god to catch the falling Chikane it similarly has a new, glittering paint job. So with this evidence, I've decided that silver is the color of the god's power, as bestowed on its human vessels, while gold represents the actual will of the god, acting directly in the world. You could just as easily argue that the gold color is specifically that of the Solar Priestess while blue represents the Lunar Priestess (see ep. 12), but that's getting too confusing for the manga. ;)_


	17. Sacrifices

Darkness and flame crashed against the silver sphere, making Himeko flinch, but Chikane gripped her hand tightly and the barrier that was Ame no Murakumo's power repelled the dark energies assaulting it. They retreated, flying back away from the shrine. Orochi hovered there, like a guardian watching over its final vessel.

Yokusemi no Mizuchi had been immense, but the complete god dwarfed it. It vaguely resembled the hydra of Greek legend, with a body that was somewhat reptilian, but there was nothing clean or neat in its chaos. Chikane could actually see bits and pieces of the eight lesser gods making it up. A row of chitinous legs ran along its underside, clearly taken from Ooube no Senazuchi. The black wings of Take no Sukunazuchi sprouted from its back. The tentacles of Yatsu no Onokoshizuchi were recognizable as the long, writhing necks of the monster, flexing around a central maw in its "chest" that was the ever-changing face of Ho no Shuraizuchi. Armored plates like Take no Yamikazuchi's lined its back, the mismatched arms of Hi no Ashinazuchi sprouted from its sides, flexing and clawing above the hawk-talons of Yokusemi no Mizuchi, while its tail wasn't serpentine but mammalian, like Izuhara no Tamazuchi's but tipped with a black barb like its first god's sword. Eyes and mouths opened randomly, then closed and vanished within the seething chaos of its body, and none of its leering draconic heads matched any of the others in shape.

This was the _Gattai Orochi_, the Eight-Made-One, the complete body of the god of destruction. The eight lesser deities had been combined, their substance and their power melded as one under the awakened will of Yamata no Orochi.

It was this _thing_, Chikane thought, that was ultimately responsible for all the pain she and Himeko had suffered, not just in this life but through all their existences. The absolute need to defeat this abomination regardless of the cost had shaped their choices and spawned their suffering. She hated it beyond measure. And yet, ironically, feeling the warmth of Himeko's hand in hers she wouldn't have given up a moment of that time.

"Are you all right?" she asked Himeko.

Her beloved nodded.

"I was just a little startled at first. Orochi is really scary, you know!"

Chikane couldn't help but chuckle.

"Only you," she said, "would see destruction incarnate precisely that way."

"You're terrible!" Himeko said with mock offense.

_How strange that we can be so relaxed facing this horror,_ Chikane thought, _just because we're standing together at last._

_Only..._

Yamata no Orochi reared up above them, its immensity seeming to block out the sun and stars so that the only light came from the violet haze that surrounded it and the silver radiance of Ame no Murakumo. The misshapen heads screamed out their defiance once more and Chikane could feel a sudden, answering surge from the divine power protecting them. The two ancient rivals, each confronted with their mortal enemy, trembled with the urge to join in battle.

Chikane was about to answer that urge when a spark of light from below caught her eye. Glancing down she realized that it came from Minako's solar mark, a harsh, cruel light like the noonday sun on the desert sands.

"The Solar Priestess..." she murmured.

"What is it, Chikane?"

"Professor Ohgami is the Solar Priestess. She can use her power--Ame no Murakumo's power!--to support and enhance Yamata no Orochi. She'll tip the scales, making it stronger than Ame no Murakumo."

"We'll lose? But what can we do?"

Chikane's mind whirled, facts and memories falling into place as she analyzed the situation. In seconds, she found herself smiling.

"If she wants to imitate me and combine priestess and Neck in one body, then she can lose the same way."

"Huh?"

"One person can wield the power of Ame no Murakumo against the Gattai Orochi. You proved that with Souma last time. He was able to match it evenly despite his body being consumed from within by Orochi's curse. You don't have that burden. While you fight Yamata no Orochi, I'll descend and comfort Minako face-to-face. With her attention split she won't be able to support the god with her power. It gives us a chance--no, more than a chance."

"But why?" Himeko asked at once. "Why do you have to be the one to risk your life?"

Chikane chuckled at her earnestness.

"I'm asking you to fight alone against the incarnate form all of all of humanity's hatred, and you're worried about _me_ risking _my _life?"

Never all that good with irony, Himeko answered the question with the plain truth.

"Well, you are, aren't you?"

Chikane sighed.

"Even without Yokusemi no Mizuchi at her call, she's still both the Eighth Neck and the Solar Priestess, with the enhanced physical powers that brings. As Lunar Priestess, I at least have some personal power of my own."

"And I don't," Himeko said, sighing back. "I hate it, but you're right."

The Orochi screamed again, and once more Chikane felt that terrible pressure, the two gods eager to engage one another in the next round of their eternal battle.

Himeko took Chikane's other hand as well, so that they were standing face-to-face.

"I know this may be our last time together, because it cost Souma his life when he did this," she said, "but I promise you again, Chikane: even if I'm not someone special, even if I'm not a priestess any more and we can't share eternity together, I won't let you be alone. I swear that I will find you again and keep finding you for as long as you want me."

Her eyes shone brilliantly violet, shimmering wetly in Ame no Murakumo's silver light, and then she leaned in to kiss Chikane hard and deeply, a farewell-but-not-goodbye kiss that Chikane gave herself over to utterly, committing every moment of it with her to sustain herself.

They were both crying when they parted and released each other's hands.

"There! Now go and--" Himeko broke off, blushing and stammering from what she intended to say. "Like Marika would have put it, g-go and k-kick her ass!"

A laugh bubbled up from Chikane despite herself. She used Ame no Murakumo's power to link the sphere where they stood to the shrine below, then let herself drop into the connection, arrowing down towards the surface. One of Orochi's heads caught the movement and dove towards her, spitting fire. Just before it connected, though, a bolt of silver light crashed into the side of the head and knocked it away from Chikane. _Himeko!_ The head turned away from the lone priestess, its attention fully claimed by the attack from its ancient enemy. Nothing could restrain Yamata no Orochi now, and before Chikane's horrified eyes the great bulk shot forward, its central face opened its mouth, and it belched out a cloud of pure blackness that swallowed up the silver glow like an eclipse blotting out the sun.

"No! Himeko!" Chikane screamed out, terrified. Her feet touched the moon's surface, and her distraction made her stumble slightly.

"You're late," the purr of Minako's voice caught her attention, and her own battle was upon her.

-X X X-

Darkness swallowed up Himeko, seething, roiling waves of hatred and despair. Without Chikane's presence, the barrier of Ame no Murakumo's power had shrunk from a sphere to a glow that veiled Himeko's body. She'd have really liked the sphere better, so it could keep Orochi's assault farther away from her body. This way, it was as if she was lost and alone in an eternity of night.

_Useless thing!_ the mad voices of Yamata no Orochi keened all around her. _Worthless child! Not even fit to be Solar Priestess! The gods' joke is over at long last! No longer will the Lunar Priestess have to bear the burden of supporting you!_

Himeko flinched from Orochi's words. How many times over the past week had they echoed in her own heart? No, they _were_ from her own heart, that little piece of doubt and despair that was Himeko's contribution to the accumulated malice that made up the dark god. How many times had she wondered in the depths of her soul what Chikane saw in her? What was it that brilliantly intelligent, stunningly beautiful, kind, elegant, poised, and witty Chikane could find to treasure or love in foolish, silly, clumsy, _ordinary_ Himeko? They were good questions, questions she doubted that she'd ever find answers for.

They were also questions she'd stopped asking.

They were pointless.

Himeko loved Chikane and would do anything to insure her beloved's happiness. And since by some miracle Chikane had decided that her happiness lay with Himeko, that settled the matter. She might never understand _why_, but she had no doubt whatsoever about _if_.

The light of Ame no Murakumo shone out brightly, burning away the darkness like the sun's rays parting the morning haze. The former priestess called upon the power of the God of Swords and it answered in fitting fashion, a towering blade chased in gold and silver and shining radiantly, then a second and a third, until a dozen or more blades, a veritable forest of swords flashed around Himeko.

"Chikane trusts me to win this fight," she flung into the teeth of the demon, "and I will never, never, ever betray her!"

Flame roared, bursting from eight throats as the swords dove towards Yamata no Orochi.

-X X X-

"Curious, isn't it?" Minako said casually. "Here we stand on the surface of the moon, and yet we can breathe freely, sound travels normally, and even gravity is Earth-like. Of course, this isn't _really_ the moon's surface, but a sealed space created by the gods paralleling this area. It's a fascinating concept, really; I can't begin to imagine how one could start breaking down the mathematics."

"How can you just stand there chatting like this was some kind of tea party?"

"And of course the daughter of a construction foreman knows all about tea parties. I would think all those multiple lifetimes would get confusing after a while. But at least you won't have to worry about _that_ problem after today."

"I won't let you destroy the world, Minako."

The Solar Priestess smiled.

"Over your dead body, as it were? Well, _bodies_, counting hers." She gestured upwards at the battle raging above them.

"_Damn_ you!" Chikane shouted as if it was a _kiai_ and charged the professor. Minako smiled thinly and reached for her own sword. As Chikane slashed, her enemy's blade flickered out in an _iai_ draw that deftly parried the Lunar Priestess's attack and nearly cut her in return.

"You've been in my house often enough; didn't you notice the kendo trophies? I was prefectural champion all three years in high school, nationally ranked every year in college, and I'm still the university team's faculty advisor," Minako said dryly as their swords rang together. "Of course, that's nothing compared to all those years you have as a sword priestess, but then again, you aren't a Neck of Orochi any more, so that gives me the extra strength and speed to make it up."

_She's right_, Chikane thought. Steel rang against steel as they engaged one another. _I'm the more skilled fighter, but she's faster, stronger._

"You shouldn't _have_ to make it up," Chikane shot back at her. "If it wasn't for your arrogance, you wouldn't be fighting me now. You should have killed me at the shrine while you had the chance."

"Oh? Why is that?"

The blades began to glow as the duel went on, Minako's in a harsh gold, not the gentle warmth of Himeko's sun but a cruel heat corrupted by the professor's Orochi nature. Chikane wondered if, had she fought like this in her last life, would her own moonglow have been equally corrupt instead of its soft, pale light? She launched another attack, age-old patterns from centuries ago singing up to her through the sword, memories of battles long ago, Solar and Lunar Priestesses dueling together once again in that timeless dance of blades fought so many times before.

_Solar and Lunar Priestesses..._

_No! She can't be--?_

"Ah, so you've figured it out at last!" Minako said delightedly and forced an disengagement. "I so hoped that you would. It's so trite, for a villain to have to explain her actions in painstaking detail just to show off her ego."

"You _planned_ this! You left me alive on purpose, and Himeko too, because you _wanted_ us to come after you!"

"If I'd wanted you dead, it would have been easy enough while you were under the impression I was a friend."

"Then everything that's happened...the defeat of the other Necks, the freeing of Yokusemi no Mizuchi, the summoning of Ame no Murakumo, this was all because of your scheme, right down to this duel."

"Well, yes and no. My doing, absolutely, but it's not my plan, Chikane."

She launched herself into another whirlwind attack that Chikane barely blocked, the force of it jarring painfully up her arms.

"It's _yours_."

-X X X-

Himeko never saw where the head came from. It was hard to keep track of them all, to say nothing of fiery breath, bursts of violet lightning, or bolts of pure, corrupting darkness! She felt sure that Ame no Murakumo must be helping to guide her, else she couldn't imagine how she could control all those swords while dodging as much as she could. But she'd made a mistake after all, and the monster's enormous jaws slammed down on her with titanic force.

And were stopped.

Teeth larger than Himeko's entire body were halted just short of her skin by the veil of light protecting her. Physical size wasn't relevant; this was a matter of one god's power meeting another's. The head worried at her like it was trying to rip a piece of meet off a carcass, making Himeko nervous about how much damage the barrier could take. But by biting her the Orochi head had made a fatal mistake, keeping itself fixed in one position relative to its opponent. A half-dozen silver swords dissolved into bolts of brilliant white lightning that blew the head apart.

_Just a little longer_, she thought, breathing hard from the strain of bearing the power of the god. _Even if it's just this once, let me be able to protect Chikane!_

-X X X-

"_My_ plan?" Chikane said incredulously, barely fending Minako off. The Orochi was too fast to be countered normally; only by reading her body language and combining it with her knowledge of swordplay could Chikane react in time to do what she wanted in the fight instead of constantly playing catch-up. Talking disrupted the concentration she needed, which was probably why Minako was doing it.

The bait she dangled, though, was almost irresistible.

"It's true that I never believed your stories about being the reincarnated priestesses," Minako said. "That didn't mean that I wasn't _listening_."

She was relying on speed and reflexes more than her skill. Conversation didn't bother her at all.

"When I awoke as an Orochi, I didn't waste my time worrying about the sudden shock to my worldview. From the lore handed down in my family and the stories you and Himeko told, I knew all about how the system worked--and I knew how I could accomplish my goals."

"Your...goals?"

"Of course. I may despise the world that we live in, but I don't want it destroyed forever."

Chikane tried a complex series of strikes to attempt to confuse Minako about where the real attack would come from, but the Solar Priestess broke it up with a lightning riposte that left Chikane scrambling back on the defensive.

"It's the _gods_ that I truly despise."

That was when Chikane started to understand.

"That's why you set it up for us to call Ame no Murakumo. You _want_ Yamata no Orochi to lose!"

"Yes, and I think we can trust your sister to handle that. She's all but useless at ordinary things but she does have quite a way with the impossible. No doubt that's why Ame no Murakumo picked the two of you in the first place, since you fit together with each other so well." She chuckled and added, "You should be glad that I killed the Second Neck; he'd have made four dirty jokes out of that line."

"Don't you dare talk about Himeko!"

"But why? I'm not going to hurt _her_. It's true, of course, that I stole the mantle of Solar Priestess from her. I'd mastered all the arts of the Ohgami priests, after all, which use the power of Ame no Murakumo. That taught me how to manipulate the god's energies. What the priesthood's magic always lacked was simple power--and as an Orochi I had that. So, before the two of you awakened, I did exactly what Marika guessed was done. I 'swiped' the role of Solar Priestess. It took fairly unique circumstances: the power of a Neck, the Ohgami Shrine knowledge, the fact that I knew you personally and so could properly direct my will, all applied during that short gap between the Orochi's awakening and your own. But it worked! I _am_ the Solar Priestess of Ame no Murakumo."

Chikane felt herself giving ground; not only was Minako's talk distracting her against her will but it seemed to be working the Solar Priestess up emotionally on top of that.

"Which means that once Orochi is defeated, I will complete the ritual of rebirth by killing you, the Lunar Priestess. Your life will be used to restore the world, and I will have the choice of the next world. I'll use that choose to do exactly what you wanted Himeko to do last time: I'll choose the world that ends the cycles forever, one with no Orochi, no Ame no Murakumo, no reincarnations or miko or gods!"

In spite of herself, Chikane gasped.

"But why would you...?"

Professor Ohgami arched an eyebrow.

"Of _all_ people _you_ can ask that? Ame no Murakumo's faithful servant through multiple lifetimes, whose reward for diligence and loyalty was to be condemned to find your beloved, only to have to kill her at the end of it all, be separated until Orochi was ready to break free again, rediscover one another, then be torn apart all over again, repeat _ad nauseam_? Until you tried to make her hate you so much that she'd wish for a world without you in it just so she would be free of this hell?"

_But Himeko wouldn't accept it. Even without any memories of our past she saw through the worst things I did, and she..._

"It...isn't hell anymore."

Minako feigned a yawn.

"Yes, yes, true love conquers all and so on and so forth. Very nice for you, I'm sure. Meanwhile the rest of us do so enjoy being blown out of existence and having our lives rebuilt and reshaped to match whatever emotions a couple of teenaged girls are feeling at the time. So I'm going to get rid of it all. Even your darling Himeko will get a new life free from her accursed destiny. Of course, _you'll_ be locked up alone in the Shrine of the Moon for, oh, all of eternity, but nothing's perfect. And besides, Chikane, it _is_ what you wanted for you both before Himeko figured out how to game the system in your favor."

With that, she pressed her attack again. The flashing blade snipped a bit off one trailing sleeve, grazed Chikane's side almost delicately, and re-opened the cut on her cheek that the Fifth Neck had inflicted.

_And what happens if I win? _Chikane thought. _If I kill her, I remake the world--and then what? She'll still be Solar Priestess for the next incarnation. And Himeko..._

Himeko had known, had understood what they were getting into. As always, she saw the big picture while Chikane was lost in the details.

Their swords clashed again; Chikane was forced to block directly, jarring her grip. Minako's foot swept up under the crossed blades and buried itself in the pit of Chikane's stomach. The Lunar Priestess went one way while her sword went another.

A tremendous bellow echoed out above them, a scream of rage and frustration that seemed to echo to the corners of the universe. Even as Chikane struggled back to her knees she couldn't resist a glance upward where the immensity of Yamata no Orochi was dissolving into a cloud of darkness that in turn dissipated around the blazing silver star like smoke on the wind.

"And that, I think, finishes that," Minako said smugly, thrusting at Chikane's heart.

Her sword didn't get there.

"Himeko!"

The former priestess's hands had clapped together, catching the flat of the blade between them, only her timing had been off. The blade had already pierced her body by the time she caught it, the tip emerging from her back.

"I'm sorry...I'm late...Chikane," she said, then coughed, a trickle of blood spilling over her lip. The Solar Blade had obviously punctured a lung.

"Oh, _please_. Now I have to kill you to get to her? Can this _possibly_ get any more trite?"

"That's...not it..."

Himeko smiled serenely, her eyes closing.

"And what do you think you can do? You'll bleed out in minutes, or drown in your own blood."

Then the symbol of the Solar Priestess blazed up brilliantly. It stunned Chikane--but then she realized that Minako, too, wore a look of complete surprise. Then the Solar Blade began to glow with a brilliant golden light, spreading out from Himeko's palms to encompass the entire sword.

And Chikane understood, and laughed out loud.

"Don't you see, Professor? _She_ carries the full power of Ame no Murakumo, and you aren't protected by Orochi any more!"

As the sword's glow grew brighter, the shine from the solar mark dwindled away until it went out at last. A single tear trickled down Himeko's cheek.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Three bolts of silver light descended from above, striking the Eighth Neck with force that could obliterate mountains, blasting Minako Ohgami's body to ash. As if the other woman's grip on her sword had been the only thing holding Himeko upright, the blonde sagged to the ground.

"Himeko! Himeko!" Chikane scrambled over to her, cradling the wounded girl in her arms. "Himeko! Oh, Gods, please don't let this happen!" The breast of her white robe was drenched crimson from the wound and Chikane started to rip it away in the vain hope that there was somehow _something_ she could do to stanch the bleeding.

"Sorry. I...messed up again," Himeko said with an embarrassed smile. "I heard...what she said to you."

"You heard all that?"

"Ame no Murakumo..." she answered the unspoken "how?" Her smile turned tender and she added, "Couldn't let her...do that...to you..."

"Himeko! I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for my sake!"

She didn't blush.

"It wasn't just to protect you."

_Is her voice getting _stronger_?_

"I was selfish too, Chikane. I don't ever want to be part of a world without you."

"But to throw yourself in front of her sword..."

"I wasn't trying that. I was trying your sword-catch, but I didn't get it right," Himeko admitted. "But I had to do it in person. I didn't think a barrier would work."

_No, it wouldn't_. The Solar Blade had pierced the silver veil around Himeko like it hadn't been there; the sword was as much a manifestation of Ame no Murakumo's powers as that which Himeko had wielded. The barrier wouldn't stop itself from crossing.

"But I was clumsy. I...messed it up...again." Her voice started to fade again and terror stabbed at Chikane's heart. The silver light began to ebb and then flickered out.

"No! Himeko! _Himeko!_" Chikane screamed.

**Lunar Priestess.**

The sigil on her back burned, and her head jerked up. It was a voice she knew all too well. The God of Swords acted more like a weapon than a deity while Orochi was active, its will awakening only when the dark god was beaten.

**Lunar Priestess, time grows short.**

It was there, towering over them, a great armored figure like a Western knight in elaborate bright-golden armor and haloed by a ring of fire. Its breastplate shone with the combined symbols of sun and moon, the sigil seemingly graven there in pure light. One great hand was outstretched, its gauntlet immense enough that it could have easily cupped both girls in its palm, and before Chikane's eyes the Lunar Shrine began to rebuild itself: the elegant building in traditional style atop its six-pillared platform, the long staircase ascending to it, and the two prayer gates at its base, all intact and pristine.

"Time? Himeko is dying!" Chikane cried.

**Yes. The Solar Priestess has sustained a mortal wound.**

"The Solar--But she's not..." Chikane looked back down and saw what she'd missed before. The mark of the sun was glimmering faintly from its accustomed place atop the cleft between Himeko's breasts. "But how?"

Himeko smiled at her.

"I...took it back..."

**Through me, the Solar Priestess reclaimed her rightful role. However, the usurper's work has created an imbalance. It lies with you to act, Lunar Priestess.**

"An imbalance?" Chikane could barely think, things were happening so fast.

**The false Solar Priestess has mortally wounded the true one. When her life ends, there will be no one capable of reviving the world.**

_The ritual of rebirth. That _damned_ ceremony_, Chikane thought, understanding. Just as Minako had tried to carry it out in her fight with Chikane, she and Himeko had actually done it as they passed the position of Solar Priestess between themselves. The Solar Priestess had struck the blow. The Solar Priestess was dying from it. The energies released by Himeko's death and imprisonment within the shrine would be the spark that kindled the revival of the world to come, a world chosen by her slayer.

Only, Minako Ohgami was dead. She wasn't capable of choosing anything.

**You must act, Lunar Priestess. My power sustains the Solar Priestess's existence beyond what could commonly be endured, but her time is finite. You must repeat the ceremony while life still remains to her.**

Chikane's gorge rose; she seemed to be choking as she realized at last what Ame no Murakumo was truly saying.

"You...you mean that if I kill Himeko now, before she bleeds to death, then the ability to choose the new world will be transferred to me."

**That is so.**

"No! You can't ask this of me! Not again!" Of all things, to take Himeko's life with her own hands..._I can't bear it again! I can't!_

**It must be.**

"But in our last lives, Himeko wasn't the one who killed me! I was wounded in my fight with the other Necks and once Orochi was sealed bled out without its regenerative power, but Himeko still got to choose then."

**Your wounds were not inflicted by a priestess. The role of choice had not been claimed and could be assumed by the Solar Priestess in the absence of a prior claim. That is not so in the present.**

"Please...Chikane..." Himeko's voice was starting to grow weaker again, barely louder than a whisper.

"Himeko!" She was sobbing now, the tears streaming down her face. "I can't do this to you again!"

"I'm so sorry. If only...I hadn't been...so clumsy I'd...have spared you this....But now you...have to--"

"No!"

"Chikane, please. I...I trust you..."

_Oh, Himeko!_

**Lunar Priestess.**

She had no choice. But when had she ever? This was their fate, the destiny of the priestesses of the Godless Month, their own inescapable prison. Gently, she wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the Solar Blade and pulled it as smoothly as she could manage from Himeko's body. Despite her efforts, Himeko winced and gave a little cry, making Chikane's stomach clench from her shame. Himeko wasn't strong enough to kneel upright, so she supported herself with one hand while the other tremblingly pulled her long, blonde hair out of the way, baring her neck for the strike.

Chikane wiped the tears from her eyes on her sleeve--at least she could make it a clean cut--raised the sword, and brought it down in a lightning-swift motion.

**It is done!**

"Himeko..."

With a wordless scream of fury she hurled the bloodstained sword away with all her might; it sparkled in the golden light emanating from the god. Chikane dropped to her knees and reached out to take the corpse in her arms, but before she could touch it the body and severed head alike were wreathed in that same bright gold, dissolving into firefly motes that swirled up around Chikane. A wind seemed to blow out of nowhere, making Chikane's hair and her trailing garments swirl around her, sweeping the glimmering lights away towards the shrine. Did she see--just for an instant--the image of a figure on those stairs, looking back over her shoulder with sorrow in her eyes?

**The choice now lies with you, Lunar Priestess, of which of eight possible worlds to be revived.**

Eight worlds, or eight million? There were eight basic structures, eight frameworks establishing the relationships between humans and the gods, but so many gradations within them, shades with which to color that choice. It was the heart of the priestess making the selection that shaped the revived world for good or ill. They'd seen that, how the last world revived by Chikane had been tainted by her despair and longing and fell all too soon to Orochi, while that selected by Himeko had been marked by a weakened demon.

"My love..." she whispered. "Why couldn't this decision be yours?"

**Choose!**

_Chikane, I trust you._

Himeko's last words.

_I've murdered you, sentenced your soul to be imprisoned alone, deceived you, raped you, manipulated and tormented you, and now murdered you yet again. And still you call this love? Still you trust me? Who could believe such a thing?_

"Why did this have to happen again?"

**We are, all of us, bound by necessity.**

Was it her imagination, or did the god's voice sound almost sympathetic?

**Should this pain be too great to bear, you need not endure it again.**

That had been Minako's wish. It had been _Chikane's_ own plan in her past life.

_Chikane, I trust you._

Tears trickled freshly down her face, hot against her skin.

"I've decided."

She took a deep breath.

"The world I choose is--"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

_A/N: I suspect that Chikane would take Himeko's confusion over why Chikane loves her and toss it right back: why would sweet, innocent, gentle, kind, Friend-to-All-Living-Things Himeko love a sadistic, manipulative, deceitful sociopath like Chikane? But like Himeko noted, it's the fact of it that matters, not the reasons. Love's like that._

_Incidentally, in case anyone's wondering, I did note that one possible ending would be for Himeko to just blast Minako away from the air rather than trying to block the sword. Since Himeko wouldn't reclaim the Solar Priestess status then, it would give Chikane the choice of world. Then, if Chikane picked the no-Orochi world, Minako would have been locked up in the Shrine forever and ever while Chikane (as surviving priestess) and Himeko (as a normal person) would have been reborn into their lives and could have lived them out together as ordinary happy people, freed of the cycle forever. As you've probably noticed by now, though, that _isn't_ Chikane's ideal happiness, and Himeko's thoughtful that way. Unfortunately, she was a little slow in the rescue, meaning that you all get one last cliffhanger._

_You'll now notice why it was that I made a point a few chapters back about talking about the priestesses' ability to resist (though not regenerate) the effects of physical damage. It's why Chikane held on so long in the original series (especially the anime), and it keeps Himeko alive long enough for the conclusion to happen here._

_And yes, if Himeko hadn't been so weak, she could have been the one to kill Chikane and pick the new world here; unfortunately there was no way she'd have the strength to bear the spiritual weight of all the energies of creation...or the physical capacity to actually kill Chikane._


	18. Epilogue

_**The revived world was one that knew nothing.**_

- - - - - - - - - -

**Eight**

Takeshi Ohgami sighed heavily.

"I just don't know what to do about Marika," said the priest of the Ohgami Shrine.

"Marika?" His sister paused in the act of packing a sheaf of corrected exam books in her bag. "What's she done?"

He didn't reply at once, trying to articulate his concerns.

"It's not so much anything she's _done_, it's just...I get the impression, Minako, that she's not particularly serious about taking over as shrine priestess after I pass on. She says that she wants to, but..."

Minako chuckled.

"Takeshi, she's only nineteen. I don't think she intends to keep on with her flashy hair colors when she's your age. Though to be fair we'd probably attract more visitors that way."

"Minako..."

She looked at him carefully.

"You're really worried about this, aren't you?"

"I know that I shouldn't be, but--"

Professor Ohgami shook her head.

"No, you're her father. You have a right to be concerned about her future. Just because I think you're wrong doesn't mean that you necessarily are, and you certainly shouldn't ignore your feelings."

There was another long pause.

"Would you talk to her, Minako? I don't want her to think she _has_ to follow in my footsteps just because she's my only child. There are other options."

"Well, since I've been there myself I can at least sound her out," she said. "Honestly, though, I don't think she's anything like me in that respect."

In her youth, Minako had gone through a real crisis of faith when she'd become aware of the evils carried out through history in the name of religion. She'd even flirted with out-and-out atheism in her college years. By the time she was midway through graduate school, her attitude had mellowed: it wasn't _religion_ that was the negative force but rather _fanaticism_. Extremism in _any_ form, religious, political, cultural, or over things far more trivial--riots breaking out at _sporting events_, for Heaven's sake!--was dangerous, a fanatical atheist as bad as a fanatic of any other belief system.

She was glad she'd had the chance to reconcile with her family before her parents' deaths. Though she'd passed on the opportunity to become the shrine priestess, it wasn't for philosophical reasons but because she loved the studies she'd turned to in the interim.

It was frightening to think how easily she might have ended up filled with bitterness and hate, isolated from her family over something that wasn't even their fault. She wasn't the only one; if Takeshi had been angrier or more entrenched in his own beliefs instead of being willing to respect hers, for example...

Then she had to smile. Was there anything sillier than worrying about things that could have gone wrong but hadn't? That was even dumber than worrying about future events she couldn't control.

"Thanks, Minako. I really do appreciate it."

She buckled the straps closed on her bag.

"It's no trouble. Besides, you're a priest and I'm a professor. We both spend our jobs providing guidance for others. The least we can do is extend that to our own family."

- - - - - - - - - -

**Seven**

"Major Ozawa?"

"Major Ozawa, this way!"

"Major Ozawa, a moment, please?"

Junichi Ozawa strode down the courthouse steps, looking neither left nor right at the mass of reporters and their desperate attempts to get his attention, to try and become part of his story. Reluctantly they parted before him as he advanced, until he reached the black sedan parked at the base of the steps. The driver opened the door for him and Ozawa got inside.

"Quite a show," the uniformed man who'd been waiting said once the door closed.

"Vultures scenting a fresh kill if you ask me, Colonel Matsuzaka."

The colonel nodded.

"It's only to be expected, in the event of a guilty verdict."

Ozawa nodded back.

"Intelligence agents attempting to manipulate JSDF policy make for lurid headlines," he agreed.

"And testimony from the 'Savior of Sendai' carries great weight."

Ozawa shook his head.

"I only did my duty, Colonel."

"A lesser man wouldn't have had the character, Major."

_But the hostages!_ _Control, we need more time to determine if the threat is real!_

_We do not have that luxury, Major Ozawa. Execute your orders or you will be relieved._

_Those orders are contrary to standing unit policy. I will not initiate an attack in this situation without specific and direct instructions through the chain of command. Team Alpha out._

The extremists had proven to have no sarin gas or any other mass-destruction agents. A properly planned strike by Ozawa's team had retaken the school with three terrorists killed in action, four captured, and no injuries to any of the hostages. When one of the captured extremists had proven to be an informant who'd been let go in the past in exchange for information, corruption charges had come flying, with a major purge in various intelligence agencies. The JSDF top brass, including the colonel, were very happy with the outcome because the army was being boomed in the press as honest, incorruptible warriors, events sure to win them significant political coin. Business as usual in that respect, Ozawa thought.

Maybe the Colonel was right. Maybe someone else in Ozawa's position would have carried out the attack and thereby concealed the evidence of intelligence involvement. How many innocents would have died? Could he himself have made that choice? And if so, what would have been the outcome?

_Pointless musings_, he decided. A person had to live the life they had, not spend their time dreaming of how things might have been different. It was, after all, the future that mattered.

- - - - - - - - - -

**Six**

"We're going to get through this, Yuki; I know that it's hard, but you're a strong woman. You're not going to let that animal take control of your life."

"I...I just wish it had never happened!" the young woman sobbed. "That I could forget it all and just move on with my life!"

Akemi nodded.

"I know. It's really, really hard. And it would be so good if you could just walk away, but hiding won't do anything to help. That man tried to take away your power over your own life, and the best thing you can do is to show him--show _yourself_--that you aren't going to let that happen."

"Show...myself?"

"That's right," Akemi assured her. "You've already taken the first step by coming here, by admitting that this isn't something you can hide inside yourself, alone. If you're willing to talk to Assistant Inspector Nakajima, he can help."

"But what if they can't catch..." Yuki whimpered.

Akemi shook her head.

"It's not about catching the criminal. That would be a good thing for society, but right here, now, we're only worried about you. This is about you standing up and doing everything you can for yourself, to not let your life be controlled through pain and fear."

Her eyes flickered nervously towards the door.

"Will...will you come with me, Akemi?"

Smiling warmly at the girl, Akemi said, "Of course I will."

It was nearly two in the morning, more than four hours later, by the time Akemi and Nakajima paused for a cigarette together in the parking lot.

"You didn't have to wait for me, Inspector," Akemi motioned as she lit hers. She'd spent nearly an additional two hours with Yuki after the interview was done.

He shook his head slowly. All of Nakajima's movements and body language were slow and measured, Akemi had noticed--probably because of a conscious effort to avoid frightening the crime victims he dealt with, that had in turn become habit.

"Yeah, I did," he said. "You do good work here. We're three times as likely to get a conviction in cases involving the women who come here."

"That's not what it's about," Akemi said.

"I know. I want to protect people by putting the scumbags behind bars, but you want to help the people who have already been hurt."

The blue-haired woman exhaled, and the smoke mingled with the foggy air.

"Rape is the only crime where most of society immediately assumes that the victim is the one at fault. With a robbery, the criminal gets put in prison, but with rape, it's the victim who's punished afterwards, by guilt, by shame, and by fear."

"Probably because people think it has something to do with sex."

"When it's really about power and control," Akemi agreed. "That's why I work here." She gestured at the crisis center. "To help women learn that they're _not_ at fault."

She wondered, as she so often did, what would have become of her own life had her mother and her aunt not been there for her with unconditional love, helping her to understand what had happened to her from the proper perspective. It was why she'd entered the field of counseling and social work, to try and pass that gift on to other women, help them to know that just because they'd been victimized didn't mean that they had to be victims.

That even the worst kind of bad event didn't have to destroy a person's hope for the future.

- - - - - - - - - -

**Five**

He wielded the brush deftly, in gentle strokes measured precisely, almost mathematically.

"Hirata."

Everything had to be done just so. It wasn't enough to capture the mood or the feeling, the attitude that had to be expressed by the piece. No, an absolute precision was required, demanded by the work.

"Hirata!"

That was the essence of it, just as in handwriting one followed a certain stroke order or a character looked wrong, so too in this did each sweep of the brush have to be done in an exact order, an exact fashion or there would be flaws.

Teeth nipped gently at his right earlobe and Hirata jerked convulsively; it was all that he could do to keep from smearing the brush across the canvas and ruining a month's work.

"Thought that would get your attention."

"Damn it, Tanaka!" Hirata rounded on the big man who'd been his best friend since kindergarten and a lot more than since their teenage years. "It's not like I can just pick up an eraser if things go wrong."

Tanaka grinned, unabashed.

"You want people to not sneak up on you, pay attention when they're talking, Keiichi." He held up a paper bag. "I got the stuff you wanted."

"Hey, great. If I can get this _Starry Night_ cranked out by the end of the month, I can get back to work on that abstract." He reached for the bag but paused. Tanaka had a pensive expression on his face that didn't really go with his black leather jacket and spiked hair. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Does...does it ever bother you, spending so much time grinding out these forgeries so my _yakuza_ contacts have something to bribe those idiot politicians with? I mean, you're an artist, not a Xerox machine, right?"

Hirata broke into a broad smile and laughed.

"Is _that_ what's been bugging you these past couple of days? You figure that I'm being stifled as an artist or something?"

"Well, yeah, I guess you can put it like that."

The artist's smile grew even wider.

"Babe, I don't make art for _money_. I do it because...well, it's just something inside of me that's got to come out. Sure, I'd love it if I was some big commercial success, but it would be a pain, too, and it wouldn't change what I'd do for art's sake. As it is, I'm just glad to have a job that uses the same skills instead of having to pack fish or work in an auto plant or something. I think of it as practice. Building up my technical skills so when I do my own stuff I can better express what I feel."

Tanaka let out a big sigh.

"Seriously? That's really how you feel about it?"

"I've told you before. It shouldn't be _that_ big of a surprise."

His lover ran his hand through his spiky hair.

"I know. It's just, I see you painting away at those things when I know how much you love working on your own art, and, and...I worry, that's all. Especially since I'm the one who set the gig up."

"Well, now you know." He paused, then grinned evilly. "Still, you've interrupted me at my work _and_ proved that you weren't listening the first few times I explained things. You're going to have to make it up to me, Tanaka."

And with that he reached out, grabbed the other man by his jacket collar, and hauled him in for a sizzling kiss.

- - - - - - - - - -

**Four**

"I scarcely know where to begin," Kenji Kojima said. "For so many years now, our relationship has been a fixture in my life." He reached into his pocket and took out a jewelry box, the name on the package one of Tokyo's most prestigious firms. The box was long and thin, appropriate for a necklace or bracelet.

"It causes me much regret, therefore, that this will be the last time I am able to see you, and I hope you will accept this token of my regard."

He extended the box to Saori Takamine; she took it, opened it, and noted that the gold-and-diamond bracelet was worth at least a million yen.

"It's beautiful, Kenji, but...this was the 'something special' you had to say to me tonight? That you're tossing me aside?"

"Saori, this is as hard for me as it is for you, but surely we can discuss this like mature adults," he mouthed platitudes at her. "You're certainly not a child any more."

"That's true," she admitted. She snapped the box shut and slipped it away in her purse, then took out her cell phone and called up a number from its memory. It rang twice before someone answered.

"Hello? Mr. Ogasawara? This is Saori--ah, you remember me! I just wanted to let you know that I've had a cancellation; I'll have Wednesdays free...yes...yes, next week at seven-thirty will be fine. Thank you."

Kenji was staring at her.

"What?" She looked at him curiously. "Surely you didn't think I'd fallen in love with you and needed to be let down easy? As you said, I'm not a child."

Still chuckling at his expression, she rose to her feet and strolled out of the hotel room.

- - - - - - - - - -

**Three**

The doctor had a smile on his face.

Everything else was irrelevant. Time, place, the impressions of the senses all vanished before that single, shining perception.

_The doctor had a smile on his face._

"The operation was a success," he said. "Mrs. Abe is going to be fine."

Yuujirou Abe let out a titanic sigh, actually shuddering as hours of pent-up tension ebbed away. Next to him, his sister-in-law Amane let out a happy squeal. Legs shaking, Abe sagged into a chair, weak from sheer relief.

"Thank God," he whispered. "Thank God."

"Thank _you_ is more like it," the white-coated surgeon said. "Mrs. Abe told me what you did, how you insisted on having her in for treatment despite her protests."

"Aoi was always stubborn about taking care of herself. When she was twelve she broke a bone in her foot in gym class and actually limped around on it for nearly two days before our parents forced her to get treated," Amane said.

"That last trait could have killed her," the doctor said. "An appendectomy is a relatively routine surgical procedure these days, but only if we act in time." He glanced at Abe, his meticulously observant eyes noting the dark suit and tie of a salaryman.

Abe knew what the man was likely thinking: _What was he doing home at that hour?_ Most salarymen would still have been en route home from work or at some company function--possibly even still at their desk. They wouldn't have been at home to know if their wife was in trouble. When Abe had been younger, fresh out of college, that would have been the case for him as well. But then he'd gotten married, and that had changed.

Priorities.

It hadn't been easy--he was undercutting everything about the corporate culture he had studied for, then worked in--but he had quit his job with Niishida Advanced Design and hunted for a new position that would meet his needs with regard to work hours. Eventually he'd found one. The salary and benefits were reduced, of course, and the opportunities for promotion justly less compared to those men and women willing to devote more to the company, but they were more than adequate for his and Aoi's needs and comforts.

Ironically, part of what he'd been working on that week were the financial projections for his current employer, the Himemiya Group, to take over Niishida. It was only that, though--ironic. He felt no sense of victory in the outcome because there was no war. It was only a matter of taking responsibility for his own choices.

"Can we see her?" he asked. "I'd like to be with Aoi as soon as I can."

- - - - - - - - - -

**Two**

Kei Tsujimura was in his element. The hard, driving rock beat through the speakers, the flashing, twisting lights, the bodies in constant motion on and off the dance floor. He moved like a prowling cat through the press of bodies, his attention focused on a specific goal.

That goal was wearing a spandex top, a leather miniskirt that hugged her skin nearly as closely, fishnet stockings, and stiletto heels. Her name was Eriko, at least he thought it was. Something that began with E, certainly...or maybe I...Kei's memory was considerably clearer about how her body had felt beneath his, skin slicked with sweat while she moaned her pleasure in his ear.

She caught sight of him as he approached, and a sultry smile crept onto her face. Either her memory was as clear as Kei's or she just liked what she saw. She let him approach, and made no move to retreat or hold him at bay as he came within an inch of her.

"Hey; I haven't seen you around lately," she purred.

"Been busy working."

"I was starting to think you'd forgotten all about me."

"Not likely."

He reached for her, his hand closing over her hip. The leather was a little stiff--her skirt wasn't high-end fashion by any means--but he got more than a hint of the softness beneath. Kei felt the heat rising in him, the blood pumping in his veins. Her eyes met his; he saw a little glaze there, a light buzz on alcohol or something else, but an answering heat in them as well. Her wet, pink lips parted slightly, and he bent his head towards her, intending to capture them.

"Ow!"

The sharp pain in his ear jerked his brain hard out of lust mode.

"Kei Tsujimura! Just what do you think you're doing?"

The voice was shrill and female. It did not belong to another of the girls he'd been involved with. That would have been embarrassing but also a bit flattering, showing him off as a stud capable of attracting women. This was a woman of forty, her hair pulled up in a bun, not unattractive but clearly no part of the club scene.

His mother.

"You've got entrance exams coming up this year!" she snapped at him while pulling him away. "Do you think I want to see my only son miss his chance at a decent life because he's hanging around with gangsters and party girls and drug addicts? You've got a chance at a better future for yourself than _this_, and I'm not letting you repeat my mistakes!"

More than one person laughed at the sight of the teenager being dragged off by his mom, and Kei flushed dark red at the humiliation. Somewhere, though, at the back of his head he knew that in five years most of the laughers would still be here, while he might well have climbed high enough that their voices couldn't reach. It was all a matter of opportunity, after all, the chance to make something of himself.

- - - - - - - - - -

**One**

"Miya-sama! Miya-sama!"

Reiko Himemiya turned to see a pretty girl, tall and willowy, running up the path towards her.

"Miya-sama, wait!"

Reiko smiled as the other girl caught up to her, then reached up and brushed the beauty's cheek with her fingertips.

"Now, Nagisa, really, after last night I'd have thought we were close enough for you to use my name."

The tall girl brushed a bright crimson.

"R-Reiko," she managed to say.

"So what was it you wanted to tell me?"

Another blush stained the beauty's pale skin.

"I...I just wanted to...um..."

"To ask me out again tonight?"

Nagisa nodded, her head bobbing up and down. Reiko just chuckled.

"Really, you're so cute, Nagisa!" She took the other girl's hands between hers. "But don't be afraid to ask such things. I won't bite, you know..." She lifted one of Nagisa's hands and nibbled on a fingertip. "...unless you'd like me to. Now, I'm afraid that I have to study tonight, but if you're free on Thursday?"

"I am!"

"Then I'll pick you up at the dorm at seven? Will that be all right?"

"Yes, Mi--Reiko."

Reiko smiled again.

"In that case, I'll see you then, my beautiful lily." She extended herself and brushed her lips softly over the other girl's. "Now, you'd better get to class, or else you'll be late."

The girl nodded, turned, and darted off.

"That," Marika Ohgami declared, "was quite a performance."

"Oh?" Reiko said slyly.

"C'mon, the two of you just went through all that with me standing right here! You're such a playgirl, Reiko!"

Reiko chuckled, but didn't deny it. Not that she could; Marika had been her best friend since elementary school, after all. It was actually kind of funny, Marika thought, since Reiko wasn't--physically--the playgirl type. She was nearly as short as Marika, had the kind of build that immediately headed towards "plump" if she didn't rigorously watch what she ate, and wore thick-lensed glasses (albeit with elegant silver rims). But there was something about her, an energy, a confidence in herself that had made her the school star since junior high. And once she had discovered girls...

"Somehow, though, I'm guessing Nagisa is not going to be 'The One,'" Marika continued. "Not unless she manages to start talking to you in complete sentences."

"Probably not. But she's sweet, and maybe when she relaxes a bit she'll be able to keep up her end of a date that doesn't involve making out."

"Oh, you have those?"

"Imp!"

"Nah, just jealous," Marika admitted. "My own love life isn't so much bad as it doesn't exist. Too bad I can't request a trade over to your side of the game."

Reiko laughed.

"You're incorrigible, Marika! Besides, I kind of like things the way you are. I mean, having a best friend like you means I'm doing something right."

"Yeah, you too. Hey, what are you _actually_ doing today?"

"Believe it or not, I'm having my hair done. I didn't tell Nagisa because it would sound like a silly excuse." She fluffed her hair around back. "I'm thinking of doing something different with it this month."

"I can get behind that," Marika said, grinning. Her own oft-changed hair was currently bright red with white twintails in honor of a research project on Canadian history. "Hey, maybe you could have it dyed? They always say that blondes have more fun."

"Blonde, huh? What made you think of that?"

"No real reason, I guess. It just seems like there's something..._fitting_...about the idea of my best friend being a blonde."

- - - - - - - - - -

_**All they had was a dusty old legend, and for some, a strange sense of loss.**_

- - - - - - - - - -

Slowly, Himeko ascended the towering staircase leading to the Shrine of the Moon, her spirit embodied within the enclosed holy ground of Ame no Murakumo. It was a journey she'd made many times over many lifetimes, she knew, though her memories of it were hazy at best.

**Do you regret your sacrifice, Solar Priestess?**

She paused and looked up at the towering figure of the god.

"No, of course not! I don't want the world to go away."

**Then why do you weep?**

_Weep?_ But yes, tears were trickling down her cheeks.

"It's for Chikane! If only I'd been stronger or more skilled she wouldn't have had to do that! If only there had been more time for me to talk to her..."

_If only..._

It was the most miserable phrase in the language.

"There's really only one thing she needs from me. But I guess you know that, huh? I mean, I'm silly and clumsy and graceless. I'm not really heroic or anything, almost a burden in that way. And the other things--shared moments together, hours spent talking, the making of memories, and, um...other things..." For some reason, she _didn't_ blush, maybe because Ame no Murakumo was hardly inclined to care about the details of human life. "Anyway, those things aren't needs, they're wants. They're because we're in love; we want them because of it, and they help us become closer, and they're as much about me as about her."

**Then what is it that you believe she needs from you?**

"Chikane's like...a crystal sculpture," Himeko said. "I didn't realize it for so long, because she's so beautiful and brilliant, and because I'm not really very good at realizing what other people are feeling," she admitted. "She's so fragile, so easily hurt, while I'm..." She stopped, sighed, and began again. "Compared to her I'm like a block of granite, dull and ordinary but strong. I know that I can bear things, endure pain and suffering that she can't. That's why..." She paused to sniffle. "That's why I don't have any regrets about being the sacrifice or being imprisoned within the shrine until the next cycle. I really don't!" Was she trying to _reassure_ the god? "It's only that..."

_Oh, Chikane, if only I could be with you. Please understand my feelings!_ "I wish that I'd just had more time, enough to make her understand that there's nothing she needs to feel guilty about." She looked up at the towering figure. "I mean, you don't do this to hurt us or anything. It's just what's necessary for the sake of everyone in the whole world!"

Himeko wondered if Ame no Murakumo cared in the least about her judgment of its actions. Maybe she was being presumptuous just to say such things! But it made her feel better anyway. If she were a god, she'd want to know that her servants didn't hate her for their roles.

_If only I could have said it to Chikane._

The shrine door yawned open before her. Once she entered the darkness within, she would be sealed there, her soul trapped to wait--years? decades? centuries?--until the cycle turned and the darkness in human hearts once again called out for Yamata no Orochi to descend. Only then would she be released to be reborn. Unless, of course, Chikane had been unable to bear it any longer and chosen a world without Orochi or the gods, to end the cycles forever. In which case the door would never open again.

Without hesitating, she stepped across the threshold.

The door slid shut with a sharp click.

"Hime..ko?"

"Chikane!"

It wasn't so much a hug as a flying tackle as she threw her arms around Chikane, the sight of the other girl sealed in with her making her pounce at once. She squeezed her tight and buried her face against Chikane's chest.

"You're here! You're here! You're really here, Chikane!" she caroled joyously.

Chikane gave her that ironic, half-amused smile she so often did when Himeko's childlike enthusiasm got the better of her.

"Oh, Himeko." Chikane's arms closed gently around her, a hand stroking her hair.

"I was so afraid that you'd try to punish yourself for killing me again! You looked so sad and angry that I didn't know what to think. But you're here with me! You're really, really here!" Himeko was so happy she felt like she could burst.

"You said that you trusted me. So I decided to hope...to pray, really...that I'd be welcome here with you. But you honestly don't mind at all what I did, do you?"

"Of course I mind! You shouldn't have had to go through that again! If only I'd been able to stop her sword properly, I wouldn't have been wounded and you wouldn't have had to do something that hurts you so much!"

"I just _killed_ you, and you're _apologizing_?"

"Yeah, but it's not like it's forever-and-ever-apart dead. I mean, you're here together with me right away. How could I mind?"

Chikane stared at her, wide-eyed.

_How did I miss that?_ the Lunar Priestess thought. _It's not the act that matters, but the consequences._ In previous lives when she'd struck down Himeko it meant condemning them to separation until the next cycle, Himeko sealed alone in the shrine while Chikane had been returned to her earthly life in the new world. But since Himeko had shown that the slayer could refuse rebirth and be sealed away as well, it changed everything. Chikane had been expecting that the end of _this_ cycle Himeko would kill _her_, and then they could spend the interval together. Minako Ohgami's usurpation of the role of Solar Priestess had changed that, and Chikane had let the bad memories from so many past lives confuse her.

She squeezed Himeko tightly, burying her face in her lover's golden hair.

"Oh, Himeko, I've been such a _fool_." She was starting to cry again; it felt like she'd shed more tears in the past week than in all her last two lives put together. Since when had she become such a watering pot? _Since Himeko showed me that I don't have to keep it all inside. So many lifetimes of pain and suffering broke me apart, made me a monster, but she's putting me back together bit by bit._

"No, that's not true."

"Yes, it is. I was so caught up in my own feelings, my own pain, that I didn't stop to think about how you would see it. I was as blind as I was in our past lives when I thought you couldn't love me in the same was as I love you." She continued to hold Himeko tightly against her, but after a few moments Himeko's grasp loosened and she slipped her hands between them. "Himeko, what are you doing?"

Actually, it was fairly obvious what she was doing: she was unknotting Chikane's _obi_, the sash that held her kimono jacket closed. Himeko looked up, an impish smile on her face and a teasing glint in her bright violet eyes.

"You said that you hadn't been thinking about my actual feelings, so I thought I would show you instead of just telling."

Chikane laughed, love and relief cascading joyously through her, emotions that were joined by the sudden, hot slick of desire as Himeko's fingers pushed beneath her vestments to find her skin. _How could I have ever believed that these feelings were ugly and wrong?_ she marveled. She slid her hand around to cup her lover's breast, then dipped her head so she could capture Himeko's mouth with her own. Chikane's tongue probed wetly, tasting the honeyed sweetness.

"Chi-Chikane?"

Chikane broke off the kiss long enough to smile back at her beloved.

"You said that you weren't sure if I'd be here or not, Himeko. It seems that I have some feelings that I need to show you as well."

It was long and gentle and sweet between them, joy and delight and relief all mingling as they kissed and touched and brought each other to the point of bliss again and again. Later, much later, they lay entwined, earthlight streaming through the windows staining their skin a pale blue, their discarded robes a makeshift mattress for the lovers. They lay spooned together, with Chikane's arms gently cradling Himeko. Softly, she kissed the back of the blonde's head, just above the half-undone bow of her red ribbon.

"I was right in what I told Professor Ohgami," she said softly, her lips brushing Himeko's hair.

"Which part?"

"To be torn apart, separated for so long, struggling to find one another at last, only to be torn apart again, that was like an ongoing hell. But it isn't hell any more. Now, it's paradise."

"Chikane..."

"No, let me say it. Yes, it's true that we'll never have a normal life, never raise a family, never have the chance to grow old together and live out our lives in the ordinary, day-to-day way. Yes, we'll be reborn as often as we're needed to fight against the darkness only to surrender ourselves in the end and give up those lives so that the world can keep on. But the two of us will be together through it, and when our fight is over we'll be here, just you and I sharing an idyll together in each other's arms. I can't think of anything that I could better call heaven than that."

Himeko turned her head so she could smile back at the dark-haired girl.

"Me too, Chikane," she said, radiantly happy.

"I know. After all, it was your idea: that our destiny as miko might be an inescapable fate, but that it can be a blessing for us instead of a burden. I guess...that it just took me a little bit longer to fully accept what that means."

"Silly Chikane."

Chikane nipped lightly at Himeko's ear.

"Well, I can't let you be the ditz _all_ the time," she teased, making Himeko giggle.

"Hey, Chikane?"

"Yes?"

"What did you choose for the new world?"

"I didn't."

"Huh? But how would that work?"

"You said that you trusted me, so I decided to trust you too."

_Tears trickled slowly down her face, hot against her skin. Despair and loss hammered at her._

No!_ she told herself sharply. _I...I won't do this again. If I've hurt Himeko, then I'll let her be the one to judge that. And I'll...I'll put my hope in her.

_"I've decided."_

_She took a deep breath._

_"The world I choose...is the world that Himeko wants for us!"_

- - - - - - - - - -

_**But, as long as there is darkness in the human heart, someone might look to the night sky and notice it.**_

- - - - - - - - - -

_A/N:_ _And it's done!_

_Any piece of fanfiction is by definition a labor of love, and moreso a project that ended up spanning nine months, so I have to say that I have mixed feelings about finally reaching the end of the road. Along the way I've come to the realization that--despite some truly epic flaws--the _Kannazuki no Miko_ manga has become one of my favorites._

_I first watched the _KnM_ anime in 2006 as it was released in the U.S. by Geneon and while I enjoyed it, both as a romance generally and for its unabashedly _yuri_ nature, I never expected that I'd be writing fanfiction for it. That impression was certainly driven home by the first volume of the manga, which I purchased because it's _yuri_ and hey, I support the market with some of my disposable income. That first volume was utterly awful, and I didn't have much hope for the second._

_I was wrong. ^_^_

_I will freely admit: I don't much like Kaishaku's art style. I think they're horrid at storytelling (sudden jump-cuts, confusing flashbacks, undeveloped ideas left to wither on the vine, too much dialogue without benefit of word balloons, and unexplained comments, usually rolled together into one giant ball of what-the-hell). I rarely find their ubiquitous fanservice and fetish-mongering to be of any service to me!_

_But man, the _ending!

_I'm not talking about the fetishy reborn-as-twins epilogue, here. I'm talking about the last three chapters. It's the most significant change of all between anime and manga. In the anime, Himeko fights Chikane and eventually kills her as Chikane planned, though her love seems to redeem them after the fact. In the manga, though, Himeko _will not_ be drawn into that confrontation. Despite all the awful provocation, she remains firm, refusing again and again to bow to Chikane's scheme. And in the end, Himeko triumphs over everyone and everything: over Souma's shallow and facile belief in what is going on, over Ame no Murakumo's destiny, over Chikane's self-destructive impulses and despair, and perhaps more importantly over her own weakness, self-doubt, and lack of confidence. It's basically sixty pages of Himeko saying to the universe, "I love Chikane, I want Chikane, and I'm going to find our happiness together regardless of what tries to stop us!" And she does it without even breaking character!_

_So yeah--unlike the anime, where it's left open precisely what's happening in the end (do they meet again in this life? the next? do the cycles continue? or not? and why?), the conclusion of the manga is unabashedly, completely happy. People tend to miss that just because Kaishaku had to jam in just one more fetish in the reborn-as-twins epilogue. The point is this: _they get to be together forever, never parted in life or in death, not losing their memories of one another, not even separated by the ritual of rebirth._ I really hope that I managed to get this point across in the ending to this fanfic, because the manga truly does end with "and they lived (and died, and waited, and lived again) happily ever after."_

_And Himeko _earned_ it, by facing up to her own weaknesses, finding her emotional strength, and overcoming her doubts. You may have noticed by now, but I've become a bit of a manga-Himeko fanboy._

_In any case, after how the ending resonated with me for whatever reason, I reread the manga, and in doing so I kept _noticing_ things. Interesting things. Stuff that never got explained fully, blast it, but which existed under the surface, adding depth to an otherwise shallow plot. Things like:_

_1. The existence of the Church of Orochi and how it affects the culture of Mahoroba._

_2. The gathering of potential Orochi and priestesses by Chikane's grandfather._

_3. Tsubasa's comment about how the Necks control the will of the Orochi gods instead of being controlled by them._

_4. The moment of sympathy and understanding between Chikane and Tsubasa (before Tsubasa goes off for his final confrontation with Souma)._

_5. The entire subplot about how the blood of the priestesses is needed to awaken both Orochi and Ame no Murakumo._

_6. Ame no Murakumo being nowhere near such a jerkass as he/she/it is in the anime, but genuinely commiserating with Chikane's pain._

_7. The significant differences in Chikane's character. Anime-Chikane is a teenaged girl trying to carry an unspeakable burden while tormented by feelings she doesn't understand, memories she can scarcely remember, and dreams she daren't hope to have fulfilled. Manga-Chikane is sadistic (witness her treatment of both Souma and her own grandfather), manipulative (start counting how many different goals each of her various actions work towards), deceitful (consider how much she conceals from Himeko throughout Vol. 1), and despairing. She's basically a completely different person once you get underneath the "Miya-sama" veneer. And she loves Himeko just as sincerely. Maybe more so, since it's so against her character otherwise._

_8. The exchange between Reiko and Corona before Chikane kills them (one which gives some genuine weight behind all the Reiko-Corona shippers out there!)._

_It's both neat and aggravating to find these things, because on the one hand they reveal a surprising depth beneath the surface of the story and yet on the other hand make me despair for what _could have been_. I admit, I'd love to see the KannaMiko manga rewritten by a much more skilled storyteller; I'm sure it could run 4-5 volumes if time was taken to fully develop all aspects of the characters and plot._

_Which is why I just _had_ to write a fanfic set in the manga continuity. There are plenty of fics already exploring the anime characters, and many of them are extremely good. I wanted to use the manga continuity, to explore some of the differences, and to further speculate about them. To show a Himeko who while still sweet and kind and uncertain has also found her own strength to believe in, and a Chikane who though still plagued by doubts and fears is also learning to hope and to trust._

_Just in case you were wondering, the draft of what ended up being the last two chapters and the epilogue was the _first_ part of the story that I wrote (although the final version more than doubled the length!). The second part was the outline. So yes, I knew exactly where it was going the entire time, though ideas for individual scenes did get changed along the way (Chikane's fight with Reiko in the hospital parking lot, for example, played out completely differently than I'd originally outlined it, as did the bath scene and the four-on-one battle at the Ohgami Shrine)._

_It's been a really fun ride, and while I'm happy to reach the conclusion, I'm also kind of sorry to see it go. To all of you who've read along, who have been kind enough to review and comment, who have suffered through my apparent obsession with cliffhangers or agonized over the identity of the Solar Priestess, thank you very, very much. Writing may come from the heart of the author, but there's no better feeling than seeing it touch someone else._

- - - - - - - - - -

_**On the moon there stands the ruin of an ancient shrine, which no one knows about...**_

_**No one except two young lovers, living an eternal dream!**_

_**~Fin~**_


End file.
